Creighton University - Bluejay Yearbook (Omaha, NE)

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Fr. Linn serves Creighton for 31 years The Rev. H. W. Linn, SJ. Fr. Linn looks over the campus from the fourth floor of the Eppley College of Business Administration building. V We should look for the lessons in Father Linn ' s life, said Robert Hobbins, president of Creighton Univer- sity ' s Student Board of Governors, at a student memo- rial service the night before the President ' s funeral. To me the greatest lesson in Father Linn ' s life was his openness. The lesson of openness was repeatedly referred to in eulogies following the death on Nov. 1 of the Rev. H. W. Linn, S.J., 65, Creighton ' s 20th president. More than 1,200 friends and leaders attended the funeral ma s; more than 50 priests and bishops con- celebrated. Nebraska Governor Norbert T. Tiemann and Omaha Mayor Eugene A. Leahy attended. Present were the presidents of half-a-dozen colleges, retired Omaha Archbishop Gerald T. Bergan and Sioux City auxiliary Bishop Frank H. Greteman. Celebrants wore vestments of white rather than the traditional black, marking the first use of the newly approved funeral liturgy of dignified joy. The coffin was draped in white and a candle symbohc of Christ ' s resurrection stood at the foot of the casket. It is not a blasphemy or an insult to celebrate with joy the burial of a friend, - noted The Very Rev. Joseph D. Sheehan, S.J., head of the Jesuits ' Wisconsin Province, princip„al celebrant of the funeral Mass. It is a recogni- tion of the deeper meaning of a man ' s life and his destiny to enter the glory of God. Father Linn came to Creighton in 1938 as an instructor in the classics department. Prior to coming to Omaha he had taught at Xavier University, Cincinnati, Ohio, and at St. Louis University in Missouri. During World War II, Father Linn served as liaison officer between the University and the Armed Service Units Stationed at Creighton. He was also military chap- lain for all the school ' s military units. In September of 1944, he was appointed dean of Uni- versity College, the School of Journalism and the Grad- uate School, and a year earlier he established the Creighton Institute of Industrial Relations. Initiating the Greater Creighton Development Program in 1946, Father Linn ' s leadership resulted in 11 new buildings at a cost of $45 million. He served as Vice-President In Charge of University Relations, which he assumed in 1957. In this office he supervised alumni, public relations and development activities on the Hilltop. Since Father Linn ' s elevation to the presidency in March 1962, Creighton has added six buildings and made a total expenditure of $26.6 million. This includes $5 million for research. The faculty was increased from 528 to 667 with a $2 million increase in salaries. The student body has increased 11 per cent to 4,180. The school has added courses leading to 12 more degrees.

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To be horn, to create, to love, to win at games is to he horn to live in a time of peace. But war teaches us to lose everything and become what we are not. It all becomes a question of style. Alhert Camus

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As president, Fr. Linn met all of the presidential contenders in 1968. In December 1967 he presented a plaque to the then unannounced candidate Richard Nixon, who won the Republican party nomination and presidential election. A native of St. Louis, Missouri, Father Linn was bom Oct. 16, 1904. He received his education at St. Louis University from virhich he held the degrees of Bachelor of Arts, Master of Arts, Licentiate in Sacred Theology and Doctor of Philosophy. In July of 1952, Father Linn, wrho traveled hundreds of thousands of miles visiting Creighton alumni, w as involved in a near fatal single-automobile accident on a slippery highwray near Valentine, Nebraska, in which he suffered 27 rib fractures and a fractured vertebra. A second severe accident hit Father Linn during a 1967 train ride from Chicago to Omaha, when he received third-degree burns on his left arm. He was ready to go to bed in a roomette when somehow he was thrown against steam pipes and pinned there for 2-1 2 hours. The compartment door was locked and he was unable to attract rescuers. No other person in the history of Creighton has met so many alumni face-to-face. He made annual visits to many alumni centers. His individual achievements in fund raising are nationally recognized as being uniquely successful. At the time Fr. Linn took over as Creighton ' s twentieth president he had logged more than 800,000 miles visit- ing alumni and seeking donations. Fr. Linn traveled over one million miles visiting alumni and raising money for the development fund. 17