Lannon: CU changed my life

The Rev. Timothy Lannon will return to Creighton University to lead the campus that he says had a profound influence on him and his father.

Lannon, who will become Creighton's 24th president next summer, was introduced Friday to the university at the Ryan Center.

He said in an interview that his late father, James, played football at Creighton and earned a medical degree there in the 1930s.

And it was at Creighton where Lannon earned a math degree and decided in the early 1970s to become a Jesuit priest.

He said he is delighted to return to lead the university.

“Creighton had been so good to (my dad) and in turn changed my life,” said Lannon.

The 59-year-old will take over for the Rev. John Schlegel, who announced this year that he was retiring.

Lannon has served as president of St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia since 2003.

At Creighton, he will serve as a president for the second time. The first was in the early 1970s, when he was elected student body president.

He left an impression then as a dynamic man with an easygoing manner, a terrific memory for names and a strong interest in campus government.

Several who know him well, from Omaha to St. Joseph's University, called him a leader years ago and a leader today.

“He was an extrovert, so he could reach out to people who were much shyer,” said Maureen McCann Waldron, who knew Lannon at Creighton. Lannon later hired her for public relations when he headed Creighton Prep for seven years.

Lannon once lined up karaoke for a faculty-staff party at Creighton Prep, Waldron said, and nobody was surprised.

“He was very comfortable being one of us and yet very much a leader,” Waldron said.

St. Joseph's enrolls about 8,000 students and primarily offers arts, sciences, business and evening programs. Creighton, with about 7,400 students, has the additional challenges of law, medicine and dental schools.

Omaha attorney Tom Grennan, who has known Lannon since 1971 and remains a friend, said Lannon had read Creighton's statutes 40 years ago and was well-versed in how the university was governed. Grennan was a freshman living at Swanson Hall when Lannon was a junior and a resident adviser in the dormitory.

“He encouraged me to become involved in student government and student activities,” Grennan said.

Grennan considered Lannon a mentor on campus. Grennan was from Grand Island, Lannon from Mason City, Iowa. Grennan eventually became Creighton's student body president, like Lannon before him.

“If he was your friend 35, 40 years ago, you're still his friend,” Grennan said.

Lannon co-officiated at Grennan's son David's wedding, celebrated Grennan's parents' 50th wedding anniversary Mass and baptized his daughter Eileen. All of those events occurred at St. John Church at Creighton.

Lannon became an ordained priest in 1986.

He spent seven years as Creighton Prep president, until 1995. He raised money there and helped build the Sullivan Center, a large Prep addition where school events and other activities are held.

“He doesn't meddle in the day-to-day,” Waldron said. “And he let each one of us do our jobs.”

One of his challenges at Creighton Prep involved Brother Michael Wilmot, dean of students and a coach whom some players and parents accused of being abusive.

Although Omaha dentist Clyde Knoblauch and other parents complained in 1989, it was 1993 before Wilmot was removed as dean of students and ordered to take a sabbatical. The sabbatical order came a month after Wilmot allegedly hit a student with the shaft of a golf club.

Knoblauch recalled Thursday that Lannon showed concern about his complaint and arranged a meeting between Knoblauch and Wilmot. Knoblauch said Lannon handled the situation fine.

“It probably took time” to deal with it properly, Knoblauch said Thursday. “But I'm very happy with Father Lannon. I have no complaints at all.”

Lannon eventually went to Marquette University, where he worked as vice president of advancement. He played a key role in a fundraising campaign that generated far more than the $250 million goal, said Jim Peck, who worked under Lannon.

Peck, now director of development for Marquette's Milwaukee region, called Lannon a “terrific” fundraiser.

“He talks to you. He doesn't look over your shoulder. He listens,” Peck said. “He remembers.”

Peck recalled a situation in which a donor who was expected to make a $2.5 million contribution backed off because of a mistake Peck made.

Peck, who declined to describe the mistake, said Lannon wanted to know about such problems promptly and openly. “And I went in and told him,” Peck recalled. “And he ended up cheering me up, which I desperately needed at that moment.”

Joseph DiAngelo, dean of the business school at St. Joseph's, said he was on the search committee that helped hire Lannon at the Philadelphia university.

Under Lannon's leadership, the university purchased 38 acres from a private K-12 school that moved to a different location, opened a Center for Business Ethics and a Catholic Bioethics Institute, revised the undergraduate curriculum and upgraded student housing.

“He's had a great run, and he's allowed me to have a great run,” DiAngelo said.

Lannon doesn't mind it, he said, when DiAngelo jokes about the hair graying around his temples or suggests that growing up in Iowa, Lannon must have encountered only 15 people.

DiAngelo said Lannon “never forgets anybody's name” or details about a person's family. He said it made sense that Lannon would leave for Creighton, his alma mater, not far from where he grew up.

“He's the best,” DiAngelo said. “There's going to be a lot of tears on (our) campus when this is announced.”

Contact the writer:

444-1123, rick.ruggles@owh.com

« Metro/Region

Share