Gannon University - Lance Yearbook (Erie, PA)

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Notable occasions . . . Msgr. Nash offers Mass— Kent State Moratorium Day, May 6, 1970. Behind him are Rev. Robert Susa (left) and Rev. Richard Sullivan. And one very memorable . . Msgr. Nash receives Honorary Doctor of Letters degree— Fordham University, 1957. At right is Francis Cardinal Spellman. imposter In Texas, he was the deputy warden at Huntsville State Peni- tentiary. Off the coast of Korea, he performed several operations as a naval surgeon in the Royal Canadian Navy. At Gannon College, he was Dr. Robert Litton French, prof- fessor of psychology and dean of the school of philosophy. Despite his fantastic record, he was wanted throughout North America for desertion from all branches of the military service, fraud, forgery, theft, embezzling, resisting arrest, vagrancy, and public drunkenness. His real name was Ferdinand Waldo Demara, otherwise known as The Great Imposter. As Dr. French, Demara taught at Gannon in the fall of 1945. Gannon, fledgling in its second year, was an obscure place for a man with his credentials. And Msgr. Joseph Wehrle, then presi- dent of the- college, wondered about them. I want to be frank with you, Father, was Demara's answer. I want to become a good Catholic convert but I also want to be able to grow with the school and leave my mark on it forever. Demara evidently was sincere in his desire to see Gannon grow. Soon after his initial meeting with Dr. Wehrle, Demara ordered several hundred calling cards and stationery engraved: Dr. Robert Litton French B.S., M.S., Ph.D., Psychology Dean of the School of Philosophy Gannon University He didn't last long at Gannon, however, Msgr. Wilfrid Nash, who was teaching psychology, found him to be an extremely likeable person but soon became suspicious of Dr. French's credibility as a teacher. He was refuting the very fundamentals of psychology, Msgr. Nash said. It was soon decided that he would be dismissed at the end of the fall semester. But Demara, also a hard drinker, got himself caught before that. While hoisting a few with his cronies at the old Fisher Hotel — which stood where Beyer Hall now is— he became a bit rowdy. After smashing the mirror behind the bar, Demara was hauled off to jail, all the while protesting: Call Archbishop Gannon! Call Dr. Wehrle! After being booked and having a nationwide wire put out on him, French was discovered by the Erie police to be a phony. Thus ended Dr. French's brief career at Gannon University. —Compiled from the Gannon Knight, September 21, 1973. Msgr. Nash and family at the reception celebrating his elevation to Domestic Prelate (Monsignor) by Pope John XXIII — December 1960. At the formal signing of the Gannon-Hahnemann Cooperative Family Practice Program: Msgr. Nash and Dr. Martin Shober, President of Hahnemann Hospital and Medical College of Philadelphia — December 1974. 21

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