Published: June 2008
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While he was a graduate of John Carroll University, a sister Jesuit institution in Cleveland and a short drive along Lake Erie from his beloved hometown of Buffalo, Tim Russert became part of what we call the Boston College community when his son, Luke, enrolled in September 2004. Parents who are public figures are not unheard of at Boston College, but they mostly move discreetly from airport to hired car to campus to hotel and then back to airport. Mr. Russert, however, like an eager freshman, took advantage of every opportunity to engage with the University, flying up for football games, sitting through a public interview with the editor of the student newspaper on a sweltering evening in the Shea Room, flipping a BC cap onto his head on Meet the Press, and lending his capacious drawing power and journalistic abilities to public forums sponsored by the Church in the 21st Century Center. Whether in the stadium or on the Dustbowl, he moved through Boston College with the confidence of an old boy, endlessly proud, cheerful, and at ease. “Today I’m here as a dad,” he begged off on May 19, 2008, when a reporter approached Russert at Luke’s graduation ceremony to ask for a comment on Senator Ted Kennedy’s illness. “BC lost a friend,” a senior administrator emailed me from his BlackBerry soon after the news of Russert’s death was announced on the Friday afternoon of June 13. The sentiment was widespread. On Monday morning, I arrived at the office to find that a young alumnus in Washington, D.C., had emailed me photographs of the floral tributes piled on the street in front of the NBC studios, as though thinking we, too, might want to bank them against our front gate.
Executive Producer, @BC
Editor, Boston College Magazine
The links below are to selected stories, photographs, and videos from Mr. Russert’s five years of association with Boston College.
- Russert Made Impression on BC, as Parent and Participant, from the Office of Public Affairs
- Forum on Catholic presidential candidates and their faith, April 23, 2007
Video
Story in Boston College Magazine - Forum on Catholic politicians, February 27, 2006
Video
Story in Boston College Magazine - Interview of Russert by Heights editor Ryan Heffernan ’06, October 6, 2005
Video - Russert’s 2004 Commencement address
Video - Forum on the state of the American Catholic Church, September 18, 2003
Video
Story in Boston College Magazine
