Crew Team's New Boat Bears Name of Fr. Kennedy
06/17/13
By
Canisius Professor and Jesuit Institute Director T. Frank Kennedy, SJ, readily acknowledges being “a totally unathletic Jesuit.” So he is all the more gratified at being the namesake for a boat donated recently to Boston College men’s crew.
Thomas Lacy ’93, a crew team alumnus, last year told Fr. Kennedy he wanted to donate a scull in the memory of Denis Moran, SJ, the Theatre Department chairman — and, along with Fr. Kennedy, a former professor of Lacy — at the time of his death in 1993. Lacy invited Fr. Kennedy to attend the dedication ceremony at the team’s year-end meeting so he could bless the boat and oversee its christening.
“I suggested there might be other Jesuits more connected with sports who would be better choices, but Tom was unyielding,” said Fr. Kennedy, rector of BC’s Jesuit Community. “Then, two weeks before the event, he called again to make sure I would come.”
During that phone call, Lacy sprang a surprise on Fr. Kennedy: He was donating not one but two racing sculls, and one would be named for Fr. Kennedy. So when the team gathered May 4 to salute its graduating seniors and formally welcome the new additions to its fleet, Fr. Kennedy was happy to be there.
“It was a very nice evening, all the more because of this wonderful surprise,” said Fr. Kennedy. “Part of what made this special was that Fr. Moran and I had worked on producing a Jesuit opera at BC during the Ignatian Anniversary Year celebration of 1990-91, and a number of his students and mine had been involved as singers and dancers.
“So it means a lot to be associated with him — even in such an unlikely place. I’m very grateful to Tom and all the BC crew members and supporters for this honor.”