Thomas P. O’Malley, S.J., a gifted, eloquent and scholarly priest and president of Loyola Marymount University from 1991 to 1999, died Nov. 4 in Boston of an apparent heart attack. Father O’Malley had returned to his alma mater, Boston College, 10 years ago as a professor in the Arts and Sciences Honors Program.
Father O’Malley served as the 13th president of LMU. During his presidency, he initiated the construction of the Leavey campus residence halls, advocated for the purchase of University Hall and also oversaw the construction of the Burns Recreation Center and the Hilton Center for Business.
In 1952, he was initiated into the Society of Jesus. In the course of his career, he was dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Boston College and president of John Carroll University in Ohio.
LMU President Robert B. Lawton, S.J., said Father O’Malley was dedicated to Jesuit education. “Father O’Malley was truly a renaissance man … quick with wit, poetical and well-versed in languages,” Lawton added.
A native of Milton, Mass., where he was born on March 1, 1930, Father O’Malley graduated from Boston College in 1951 with a degree in classics and added a master’s degree from Fordham University before entering the Society of Jesus at the former Shadowbrook novitiate in Lenox, Mass. in 1953. He completed his theology studies at Leuven University in Belgium and was ordained in Brussels in 1961. Following advanced theological courses and study for a doctorate in literature and theology of the early Christian period at Nijmegen University in the Netherlands, Father O’Malley returned to Boston College as chairman of the Department of Classical Languages in 1967. He later served as chairman of Boston College’s Theology Department and was named dean of the College of Arts and Sciences in 1973.
In 1980, he was appointed president of John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio, where over the next eight years, he lead a revitalization of that Jesuit institution, including the construction of new residence halls, a new student center and a new chapel on campus. He also oversaw the renovation of John Carroll’s School of Business and added several endowed faculty chairs and increased funds for scholarships and campus ministry. After a year of teaching in Nigeria, Father O’Malley served as rector of the Jesuit Community at Fairfield University. In 1991, he was appointed president of Loyola Marymount University.
Father O’Malley will be waked on Monday, Nov. 9 in St. Mary’s Hall on the Boston College campus from 4-6 p.m. and 7-9 p.m. A funeral Mass will be celebrated in St. Ignatius Church in Chestnut Hill, Mass., on Tuesday, Nov. 10 at 10 a.m. Burial will be in Campion Center Cemetery in Weston, Mass. The memorial mass at LMU will be at 10 a.m. on Sunday, Dec. 6, at Sacred Heart Cathedral.
Father O’Malley is survived by two brothers, Austin J. O’Malley of Dedham, Mass., and John F. O’Malley of Milton, Mass., and a sister, Mary E. O’Malley of Milton.
Condolences may be sent to: Austin O’Malley, 64 Carol Drive, Dedham, MA, 02026. Gifts in Father O’Malley’s honor may be sent to LMU for: Rev. Thomas P. O’Malley, S.J. Scholarship c/o Alma Vorst, 1 LMU Drive, Suite 2800, Los Angeles, CA 90045-2659.
