Youngstown Bishop and Four Others Join the WJU Board of Directors

WHEELING, WV, Aug. 5, 2010 — Wheeling Jesuit University’s Board of Directors welcomes new members, Bishop George Murry of Youngstown, along with three Jesuit priests and one banking executive at its Aug. 6 board meeting. Led by chairman, Margaret “Mimie” Helm, the five new members join a board of 18 active and two emeritus members.

The Most Rev. George Murry, S.J. (shown at right) became the fifth Bishop of the Diocese of Youngstown, which includes more than 216,000 Catholics, in 2007. His diocese encompasses 3,404 square miles.

Born in Camden, N.J., Murry graduated from Catholic elementary and high schools, then attended St. Joseph's College in Philadelphia, Pa., St. Thomas Seminary in Bloomfield, Conn., and St. Mary's Seminary in Baltimore, Md. where he received a bachelor's degree in philosophy in 1972 and entered the Society of Jesus. He was ordained for the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus on June 9, 1979. He earned a masters of divinity degree from the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley in 1979 and a doctorate in American cultural history from George Washington University in Washington, D.C., in 1994.

Murry served on the faculty and was dean of student activities at Gonzaga College High School, Washington, D.C., from 1974-1976. He was assistant professor of American Studies at Georgetown University, from 1986-1990, and president of Archbishop Carroll High School in Washington, D.C., from 1989-1994. He was named associate vice president for Academic Affairs at the University of Detroit-Mercy in 1994.

In 1995, he was appointed titular Bishop of the Canary Islands and Auxiliary Bishop of Chicago. In 1998, Pope John Paul II appointed him Coadjutor Bishop of St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands and he succeeded to bishop there in 1999.

Murry has served on many boards including the University of Detroit and Loyola Academy, both in Detroit, St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia, Mount St. Mary's College in Emmitsburg, Md. and Fairfield University in Fairfield, Conn. He is a member of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and serves on the Domestic Policy and Education committees. Since 2002, he has also served on the board of directors of Catholic Relief Services, the overseas arm of the U.S. Bishops, which provides food, clothing, shelter and medicine for those in need.

He received an honorary doctorate from WJU in 2008.

The Rev. Michael J. Garanzini, S.J. has served as the 23rd president of Loyola University Chicago since June 2001. A seasoned university administrator, tenured professor, author, and scholar, Garanzini has spent the majority of his career working in higher education.

Prior to becoming president of Loyola, Garanzini was a professor of psychology at Georgetown University, where he had been special assistant to the president for two years. Before joining Georgetown, Garanzini was a visiting professor at Fordham University in New York.

A native of St. Louis, Garanzini received his BA in psychology from St. Louis University in 1971, the same year he entered the Society of Jesus. From 1984 to 1988, he divided his academic responsibilities between the University of San Francisco and Gregorian University in Rome. He received a doctorate in psychology and religion from the Graduate Theological Union/University of California, Berkeley in 1986. In 1988, he returned to St. Louis as an associate professor of counseling and family therapy. He then served as assistant academic vice president from 1992 to 1994. He was appointed academic vice president in 1994, a post he held until 1998. In 2008, he was awarded an honorary doctorate of public service from Carthage College in Kenosha, Wis.

Garanzini also serves on the boards of Fairfield and Fordham universities. He also is a member of the Archdiocese of Chicago Board of Catholic Schools, Loyola Academy Board of Trustees and the Board of the Flannery O'Connor-Andalusia Foundation.

The Rev. Brian O’Donnell, S.J. is superior of the WJU Jesuit community. Since February 2009, he has served as executive secretary of the Catholic Conference of West Virginia, while maintaining a relationship as consultant with the Clifford M. Lewis, S.J. Appalachian Institute.

In April 2008, O’Donnell was elected to Board of Trustees of Wheeling Jesuit University, a separate board of governance at the university.

Since September 2006, O’Donnell has been on the executive board of the West Virginia Council of Churches, serving as secretary. As the executive secretary for the Catholic Conference of West Virginia, O’Donnell coordinates lobbying efforts for the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston in the state capital.

He is the former director of research for Appalachian Institute and leader of Prison Ministries Program Unit for West Virginia Council of Churches. O’Donnell also originated the office of Prison Ministries for the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston.

He is a former assistant professor of history and director of the Institute for Building Sustainable Communities at the University of Detroit Mercy. O’Donnell taught at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden in 1992 and was awarded his doctorate in the history of technology in 1994 from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

O’Donnell led the student Wellness Program at Wheeling Jesuit from 1986 – 1988 and served as a liaison with industrial retention groups in Upper Ohio Valley. Prior to that he earned his master’s at the Weston School of Theology, Cambridge, Mass. and was a chaplain at Georgetown University Hospital.

He is also a former professor of philosophy at WJU, and assistant to the Appalachian Experience Club. He earned a master’s in philosophy at St. Louis University and joined the Jesuits in 1974. He earned a bachelor’s in history and a master’s in modern European history, both at Catholic University in 1973 and 1974, respectively.

The Rev. Kevin Wm. Wildes, S.J. is the 16th president of Loyola University New Orleans.

Wildes entered the Society of Jesus in 1976 after graduating from St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. He holds advanced degrees in theology and philosophy. He received his doctorate from Rice University in 1993 and his professional work is in the field of bioethics.

Wildes serves as associate editor to and on the editorial board of a number of ethics and medicine journals and book series, and he is a founding editor of the Journal of Christian Bioethics. Prior to joining Loyola University, Wildes was a member of the department of Philosophy and a Senior Research Scholar in the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University where he also held a secondary appointment in the department of Medicine at the Georgetown University School of Medicine. He is currently a member of Loyola’s philosophy department and teaches undergraduate students each year.

Wildes has delivered a number of invited lectures and papers and has written widely on bioethics and public policy. He authored Moral Acquaintances: Methodology in Bioethics published by the University of Notre Dame Press (2000), and is the editor or co-editor of four books. He has lectured at Tulane Medical School, LSU Medical School, and given grand rounds at Ochsner Clinic Foundation. Currently he is developing a new book on organizational ethics in health care.

Wildes is also a member of the boards of Loyola University Chicago and St. Joseph’s University, Philadelphia. Active in the New Orleans community, he is a member of the New Orleans Business Council and serves as the vice chair of the national Board of Directors of Friends of New Orleans. He is the appointed chair of the Ethics Review Board for the City of New Orleans. Wildes recently served on the board of GNO, Inc., which spearheads economic development for the ten-parish Greater New Orleans region.

Robert H. Young, CPA is executive vice president and chief financial officer at WesBanco, Inc., a position he has held since June 2001.

As senior executive finance professional, he is responsible for leading corporate accounting/financial activities, including external Security and Exchange Commission and regulatory reporting, internal financial statements and board reporting, budgeting and financial planning, federal and state taxes, treasury management and asset/liability committee chairmanship, retirement plan oversight, investor relations and community development function.

A resident of McMurray, Pa., Young was formerly senior vice president and chief financial officer for PNC Bank, F.S.B., Pittsburgh.

Prior to that he was with First Western Bancorp, Inc. of New Castle, Pa. (now part of Huntington Bank), from 1986 – 1998, moving up through the ranks as vice president, senior vice president, executive vice president and chief financial officer. From 1980 – 1986, he was manager of taxes and auditing with Heckett, a division of Harsco of Butler, Pa. He began his accounting career with PricewaterhouseCoopers, Pittsburgh as a senior accountant.

Young earned his bachelor’s in accounting and business administration at Grove City College, Grove City, Pa. and maintains membership in the Financial Executives Institute, the American and Pennsylvania Institutes of Certified Public Accountants and United Way of Washington County, where is the current chairman of the board and past treasurer.

The new directors join William P. Bresnahan, the Rev. Timothy Brown, S.J.; John P. Buch, James S. Cullen, Sr. Kathleen Durkin, C.S.J.; Jane Straub Friday, the Rev. Thomas F. Gleeson, S.J.; David C. Haddad, Daniel L. Haller, Chair Margaret Helm; Christopher Helmrath; Donald Hofreuter, Adam S. Monks, James O’Malley, Gerard L. Stockhausen, S.J.; Interim President Francis Marie Thrailkill, OSU; James Will; retired U.S. Air Force Col. Carol A. Yarnall and emeritus members L. Thomas Marchlen and John B. Yasinsky.

- as published in the 'News and Events' section of the WJU official website