Talented, popular pastoral resident accepts new position in South Bend, Ind.
By Jessie Hethcoat
After six years on The Bluff, Fr. Tom Doyle, C.S.C., is returning to his alma mater, University of Notre Dame, this fall. He bids UP farewell and prepares to work as the vice president for student affairs on the Notre Dame campus.
Brian Doyle, editor of Portland Magazine, has enormous praise to give Fr. Doyle and describes him as: "Cheerful, efficient, personable, energetic, universally admired, and one of the rare Holy Cross priests who played college football and could probably still clock quarterbacks or charlatans or editors with ferocious ease."
Fr. Doyle came to UP as an assistant to the university president, was then promoted to vice president for university relations and now serves as the executive vice president of the university. He is a pastoral resident in Corrado Hall, and has made a lasting impact on the university and its students, faculty and staff.
"When people are from 18 to 22, they generally believe they can change the world," Doyle said. "It's my job to encourage them to."
Continuing his line of work with college students as a Holy Cross priest, Fr. Doyle looks forward to his new work at University of Notre Dame.
"People never get older here," Doyle said. "I get older, but the students' ages stay the same. They help me to be a better person and a better priest."
An academic himself, Fr. Doyle is well-placed as a seminarian on college campuses. Fr. Doyle graduated from University of Notre Dame with a B.A. in philosophy and later acquired his Masters of Divinity in 1996. He was ordained as a Holy Cross priest in 1998, then worked as a priest at Notre Dame and went on to earn his MBA from Harvard Business School in 2003. He has been a member of the UP executive staff since 2004.
Fr. Doyle has a few things on his resume that, to say the least, set him apart from the traditional pastoral candidate. He originally went to Harvard Business School to learn more about business in order to be better qualified for the business ethics classes he already taught at Mendoza College of Business.
Regarding both his theological training and business degree, Fr. Tom explains that the two coincide more than he would have imagined.
"It has surprised me how much they fit together and how much one enhances the other," Doyle said. "(The MBA) affects the way I preach, the way I create a staff, the way I work with others and the way I work in the community."
Although Harvard Business School is sometimes criticized for not including integrity and ethics into its business procedures, Fr. Doyle explains that he did not find this to be true.
"My experience at Harvard was so much characterized by the second week of classes, when Sept. 11 happened," Doyle said. "After Sept. 11, people who were world-beaters, the best at everything, were humbled."
Fr. Doyle values community on the UP campus as one of the most important aspects of his work. When asked about his favorite accomplishments and characteristics of UP, they ultimately come down to cooperation and unity between students, faculty and staff.
"Everything that is remarkable in my time here is a result of really great teamwork," Doyle said.
He comes from the small town of Colville, Wash., with a strict Catholic background. The second eldest of five children, he has always been surrounded by others.
"Even when on vacation, we never missed Mass," Doyle said. "I suppose I'd say we were pretty traditional."
Fr. Doyle has also been fortunate to be near some of his extended family while living in the northwest. One of his seven nieces and nephews lives in the Portland area and attends daycare through the university. Fr. Doyle visits his niece often.
"Walking into the day care and hearing my little blonde-haired niece yell 'Father Uncle Tom!' can completely end tension and stress from the day," he said.
For this and many other reasons, Fr. Doyle will miss UP.
"This is a place filled with enormous talent," Doyle said.
A Northwesterner at heart, Fr. Doyle has a passion for the outdoors.
"There's something about climbing up Germantown that clears your head," Doyle said. "I often joke that my bike is my best friend."
According to Fr. Doyle, living with young people encourages him to stay fit and get outside. He takes walks every morning and routinely finds time to exercise outdoors. Fr. Doyle also views The Bluff as a place for God. With the beauty of creation, downtown and even the port, he explains, God is visible throughout.
"To me, The Bluff is one of the best places to sit and ponder life because we have to look at all of these things together," Doyle said. "For us as human beings, the real trick is how these things coexist."
Fr. Doyle's perspective is a manifestation of his many different backgrounds and credentials. Having accomplished so much already, Fr. Doyle will bring University of Notre Dame a distinguished approach to campus life.
"I think that before I got my MBA, I might have seen downtown and the port as lesser parts of nature," Doyle said.
Sophomore Gabby Hansen attended Mass when Fr. Doyle was the presiding this year.
"I thought he added a contemporary flair to an older tradition," Hansen said. "I was pleasantly surprised at his ability to relate the Bible to college students."
Brian Doyle, too, will miss what he brought to the UP campus.
"Most of the time when someone gets promoted to a big cool job elsewhere you're glad for them," Brian Doyle said. "Not me - Father Tom meant the world here, and he got the University's zest and energy and creativity and extraordinary possibility, and his leaving is a loss. But maybe we can get him back as a regent soon, at least."
As UP president Fr. Beauchamp notably remarked in his e-mail address to the UP campus community, "Portland's loss will be Notre Dame's gain."
