University of St Thomas - Summa Yearbook (Houston, TX)

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In Memoriam Father Thomas P. O'Rourke, C.S.B.,L.L.D.,Ph.D. Mrs. Theodora Kendall Father O'Rourke, a native Texan, served in Houston as a priest since 1916. During his lifetime, Father O'Rourke was president and teacher at St. Thomas High School, Pastor at St. Hnne's Catholic Church and served as a labor arbitrator in the Houston area. It was he who helped nourish the idea of a Catholic university in Houston and then helped give the impetus for its foundation in 1947 as the University of St. Thomas. Mrs. Kendall was both educator and welfare worker. She is credited with the founding of the Galveston Diocesean Council of the National Council of Catholic Women, the Mothers' Club of St. Thomas High School and the San Jose Clinic for needy Texans of Mexican descent. Mrs. Kendall was a member of the Daughters of the Hmerican Revolution, the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the Executive Board of the University of St. Thomas and the Newman Circle. More intimately, she will be remembered at the University as a member of the staff, a position she held from the time the first students entered in 1947. May God grant them eternal rest.

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. . .2 n 0 Q 8 IV a G d p O h .m B D T. S D D D, L O N m L E D N E W D N E R E V E R T S O M E H T

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Dedication In this, the age of strife and war, the Holy Father has given us a special model, Hlbertus Magnus. He is a model for our peace-starveol people, not so much because he labored strenuously for peace between princes and peoples and individual men, but because his whole life shows forth that order Which must be at the basis of any true peace. During his lifetime, he proved that every form of activity and knowledge can be pursued for the love of God, and that most material things can be only truly known and understood when seen in relation to divine things and as ordered to God. He is therefore, given as the particular patron to those who study the laws by which the universe is governed. He was great as a scientist, and greater still because he saw so clearly that natural objects are only the lowest rung of the ladder that leads to God, that their ultimate explanation is to be found not in science but in Theology. This is what modern science refuses to admit; it refuses to accept a sub- ordinate position. Therefore, it ignores or denies the existence of God and presumes upon its own self-sufficiency leading to that deplorable state of materialism which is the cause of all moral disorders and economic ills. But, although we can talk of science in the abstract, the ultimate responsibility rests with the men who study it. In Hlbertus Magnus, the Pope has given them an intercessor who was probably no stranger to the temptations which attack them. They require courage and initiative in their efforts to fathom the secrets Which nature still holds and to adapt their discoveries to the needs of man. That requires magnanimity which was Hlbertus' greatest Virtue. They also require humility to admit the limitations of science-here again Hlbertus is their model. May Hlbertus who, in difficult times, proved by his wonderful labors that sci- ence and faith can flourish in harmony, may he by his intercession with God inspire the minds and hearts of scientists to a peaceful and ordered use of the things of nature, Whose divinely ordained laws they study and investigate. It was Hlbertus Magnus who discovered the intellectual ability of the quiet self- effacing young Dominican, Thomas Hquinas. Thereupon, he concentrated upon de- veloping the mind of this young man who was destined to become one of the great- est doctors of the Church. It was Hlbertus who addressed his class saying, HYou call this man a dumb ox, but I tell you that the time will come When the bellowing of his doctrine will be heard to the ends of the earth. Thus we consider it fitting to dedicate this Summa of 1956 to Hlbertus Magnus, scientist and teacher.