Marquette University - Hilltop Yearbook (Milwaukee, WI)

Page 11 text:

An assistant professor of ethics in the School of Dentistry and of theology in the College of Liberal Arts, Father's classroom manner is informal. Pacing back and forth in a sort of lost rhythm and out-of- bounds march, he packs his lectures with anecdotes that usually produce epidemic laughter. My favorite role is strictly spiritual, said Father Mac, but I love teaching, especially English. When I lirst came here in 1947, I taught English. I used to make the students bring their themes right to the office so I could scream and yell about them. An English major himself, Father Mac received his master of arts degree in English from St. Louis Uni- versity in 1940, one year after being ordained in the Jesuit order. My first love was grade schoolf' recalled Father Mac, referring to the period between 1920 and 1926 When he taught music and dancing in a Kansas grade school. During those years he was working toward his bachelor of arts degree in summer school at St. Louis University while a scholastic in the order. He became assistant principal of the Williamsburg, Kansas, grade school and later joined the Campion High School fac- ulty in Prairie du Chien, Where he was assistant princi- pal from 1941 to 1943. rs 'sa ,W wg, V I .xi if 3 ' ' 'Vi I l Yi by .5 , -Y , , X

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. Dedicated to . . . Fr. William McEvoy, SJ., Father William H. McEvoy is an all-Uni- versity institution. He is a disciplinary board, a counseling service, a misdemeanor court and a kind of portable Catholic Church. He has both the gentle manner and the stern approach of TV's Ben Casey and is a walking illustration of what the late President Iohn F. Kennedy termed avigahf' Father Mac, as the campus crowd knows him, can often be found in his strategically-lo- cated oltice in the dental school basement. Wheel- . . . Students' Priest ing around his office in an old, brown Wooden chair, Father Mac carries on a continuous dia- logue with the corridor clientele. When his office door is closed, chances are that problems are being discussed or sins con- fessed by an occupant of his green leather hot seat. His days are iilled with Eve-minute sessions with innumerable friends-iive minutes for casual conversation, confession or Communion. The pat- tern is typical, but never tedious, for Father Mac.

Page 12 text:

tgjgijigv: , . . 11 I M f 1 -WTB? iff - , ef13i'fsL3'S, , . L. ,,. I .. i.1,,..,L ,.L'1. . -.1 . Y LJH- But Father Mac also enjoys working with college- age people because, being in the crucial period of their lives, they need help. I have the finest job you could ask for right now, he said. The Marquette student has gone through many phases during Father Mac's 16 years here: he de- scribed the mature ex-G.I.'s that crowded in after World War IIg next came the younger students who were affected by the war. Today's group is a little more intellectual and a little less practical than mostf' he said. Many of to- day,s students, farther removed from both the Korean Wal' and World War II, are not sure what they want or what college means. They are less tolerant, in general, of those who are not as intelligent as they. He noted the presence of an almost pseudo-intel- lectual atmosphere. I would say Marquetteis standards are high on the spiritual levelf, Religious trends of the last decade, he said, show the division between those who are fervent in their faith and those who are not. The cause for many of today's Catholics, dropping their religion seems to be a form of intellectualism in which they ac- cept nhalf-bakedl' liberalism without seeking the full truth. He said that they adopt just enough liberalism to raise doubts and then refuse to follow the thought out, almost as if they were afraid of what answers they might find. He added, My plea to the students has always been, 'Keep going to the sacraments and everything will work out.' n