Thomas H. Stack
Thomas H. Stack | |
|---|---|
 Photograph of Stack in 1872 | |
| 6th President of Boston College | |
| In office August 5, 1887 – August 30, 1887 | |
| Preceded by | |
| Succeeded by | Nicholas Russo |
| Personal details | |
| Born | July 3, 1845 Union, West Virginia, U.S. |
| Died | August 30, 1887 (aged 42) Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Alma mater | |
| Orders | |
| Ordination | 1881 |
Thomas H. Stack SJ (July 3, 1845 – August 30, 1887) was an American Catholic priest and Jesuit who served briefly as the president of Boston College in 1887. Born in present-day West Virginia, he studied at the Virginia Military Institute. After the outbreak of the Civil War, he enlisted in the Confederate States Army in 1863, serving as an artilleryman and then in the signal corps until 1865. He enrolled at Georgetown College in 1866, and entered the Society of Jesus in 1868.
Stack then taught physics and chemistry at Georgetown, Boston College, and the College of the Holy Cross, before being appointed the president of Boston College in 1887. He held the office for less than one month before becoming ill and dying.
Early life[]
Thomas H. Stack was born on July 3, 1845, in Union, Virginia (located in present-day West Virginia). He enrolled in the Virginia Military Institute, but his studies were halted due to the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861,[1] and Stack enlisted in the Confederate States Army on December 16, 1863. Holding the rank of private, he was first assigned as an artilleryman, and on March 3, 1864, transferred to the signal corps. He is last recorded as an enlisted member of the Confederate Army on January 7, 1865.[2]
Following the end of the war, Stack went on to resume his studies at Georgetown College in Washington, D.C., in 1866. He decided to enroll at Georgetown after hearing its president, Bernard A. Maguire, preach in Virginia. Stack completed his studies in 1868,[3] and entered the Society of Jesus on September 1 of that year.[1] He was eventually ordained a priest in 1881.[1]
Academic career[]
Stack served variously as a professor of physics at Georgetown College, at the College of the Holy Cross, and on three separate occasions at Boston College. He also taught chemistry at Boston College,[1] and became the first faculty moderator of The Stylus of Boston College, a magazine founded in 1883.[4] He was a member of the Georgetown College board of directors from 1884 to 1885.[5]
On August 5, 1887, Stack succeeded as the president of Boston College.[6] His tenure was very short-lived, as he became severely ill with a fever on August 22, and died on August 30. Nicholas Russo was appointed as the vice rector and president of the school.[1]
References[]
Citations[]
- ^ a b c d e Donovan, Dunigan & FitzGerald 1990, p. 89
- ^ Conway, Lynn (June 30, 2011). "Blue and Gray in Bronze". Georgetown University Library. Archived from the original on September 7, 2015. Retrieved June 30, 2020.
- ^ Curran 1993, p. 266
- ^ Donovan, Dunigan & FitzGerald 1990, p. 82
- ^ Curran 1993, p. 403
- ^ Donovan, Dunigan & FitzGerald 1990, pp. 88–89
Sources[]
- Curran, Robert Emmett (1993). The Bicentennial History of Georgetown University: From Academy to University, 1789–1889. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press. ISBN 978-0-87840-485-8. Archived from the original on June 30, 2020. Retrieved June 30, 2020 – via Google Books.
- Donovan, Charles F.; Dunigan, David R.; FitzGerald, Paul A. (1990). History of Boston College: From the Beginnings to 1990. Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts: University Press of Boston College. ISBN 0-9625934-0-0. Retrieved June 30, 2020 – via Internet Archive.
- 1845 births
- 1887 deaths
- People from Union, West Virginia
- People of West Virginia in the American Civil War
- Virginia Military Institute alumni
- Georgetown University alumni
- Confederate States Army soldiers
- 19th-century American Jesuits
- Presidents of Boston College