Timothy Stafford Healy (April 25, 1923December 30, 1992) was an American Catholic priest and Jesuit who straddled the religious and secular life, serving as the vice chancellor of the City University of New York, the president of Georgetown University, and the president of the New York Public Library.
Born in New York City, Healy entered the Society of Jesus and began teaching. He eventually became the executive vice president at Fordham University, before being named the vice chancellor for academic affairs of CUNY in 1969. It was highly unusual for a Catholic priest to hold a senior administrative role at an American public university. Entering the job during a time of intense student protests, Healy was responsible for implementing the university system's open admissions policy.
In 1976, Healy left CUNY to become the president of Georgetown University. During his tenure, Georgetown rose to a position of national prominence, especially its law school, medical center, and School of Foreign Service. The number and quality of applicants increased, and admission became much more selective. Healy undertook an extensive building campaign and increased the size of the university's endowment sixfold. This prominence was furthered by the men's basketball team's 1984 NCAA Championship. However, facing declining admissions, the School of Dentistry closed in 1990.
Healy became the president of the New York Public Library in 1989. The appointment of a Catholic priest to the position drew criticism by some, while others rejected such criticism as being motivated by anti-Catholicism. Healy nearly doubled the library's endowment, opened the Science, Industry and Business Library, and sought to improve access to the local branches by poor children.
Early life
Timothy Stafford Healy was born on April 25, 1923, in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. His father, Reginald Healy, was an Australian who emigrated to the United States to study petroleum engineering in Texas, after serving in the Australian Army during World War I, including in the Gallipoli campaign. His mother, Margaret Healy née Vaeth, was a schoolteacher in Gainesville, Texas. Reginald and Margaret moved to New York City, where Reginald managed the finances of a small oil company. He took on various jobs after the company's collapse in 1929, during the Great Depression.
Education
Healy graduated from Regis High School in 1939, and entered the Society of Jesus the following year, despite his parents' initial misgivings. He began his higher studies at Woodstock College in Maryland, where he received degrees in English literature and philosophy. He spent four years at the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium, receiving a Licentiate of Sacred Theology. He then completed a year of postgraduate work at the University of Valencia in Spain. Healy returned to the United States and taught English at Fordham Preparatory School in the Bronx. In 1953, he was ordained a priest, and he received his Master of Arts in English literature from Fordham University. He then completed his education in 1965 at the University of Oxford, earning a Doctor of Philosophy in English literature. His doctoral thesis, titled John Donne's Ignatius His Conclave: An Edition of the Latin and English Texts with Introduction and Commentary, was published by Oxford University Press.
Healy returned to Fordham University, where he began teaching. Shortly thereafter, the Jesuit superiors at Fordham noticed his potential as an administrator. First named the director of alumni relations, he rose to become the executive vice president of the university. In this office, he was responsible for increasing the number of minority students at Fordham. In 1968, Healy attempted to establish a new liberal arts college for poor students in the Bedford–Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn; this project did not materialize for lack of funds.
City University of New York
In 1969, Healy was appointed the vice chancellor for academic affairs of the City University of New York. The arrangement of a Catholic priest occupying a senior administrative role at an American public university was highly atypical; Healy donated the salary he drew from CUNY to the Jesuits and lived at America House, the Jesuit residence in Manhattan.