U of S, Scranton Prep get $4 million gift from Jesuits

By Mark Guydish mguydish@timesleader.comEducation Reporter

SCRANTON – A link to the past proved a big boost for the future at the University of Scranton and Scranton Preparatory School Thursday when the Jesuit Community of Scranton announced it is donating $4 million to be shared evenly by the two institutions. Both schools have strong Jesuit legacies.

The donation was announced in a press release that quoted Jesuit Community of Scranton Administrator the Rev. Bernard McIlhenny, who said it “is the accumulation of 65 years of service, simplicity of life and hard work by hundreds of Jesuits who have served our Scranton Community.”

The Jesuits are also donating $2 million to the health care fund of the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus. Supporting the three institutions “addresses today’s challenges of health care for our aging Jesuits and of fostering our Jesuit and Catholic traditions of education with a declining number of Jesuits,” McIlhenny said in the press release.

University President Rev. Scott Pilarz said much of the school’s success is due to “the daring and devotion of my Jesuit brothers who worked to realize the dream of our founder, Bishop O’Hara, to establish an educational institution that would light the valley, and, indeed, the world with the fires of learning.”

Scranton Preparatory President the Rev. Herbert Keller called the donation “a tremendous source of encouragement” for both schools.

The Jesuits came to Scranton in 1942 to administer the University, founded by O’Hara to teach sons of coal miners. They established Scranton Preparatory two years later.

While the press release didn’t say what the money would be used for, it cited major construction either underway or recently finished at both institutions to accommodate growing enrollments. The University had a record number of undergraduate applications this year, 7,608.

The University is one of 28 Jesuit colleges in the nation, and Scranton Preparatory is one of 47 Jesuit high schools.

Mark Guydish, a Times Leader staff writer, can be reached at 829-7161.