Published: September 2009
Senator Edward M. Kennedy, who died on August 25, was a “special friend of Boston College,” in the words of President William P. Leahy, SJ. The friendship was grounded not only in on-campus participation—Kennedy was a University Trustee from 1976 to 1991—but also in the senator’s “extraordinary passion for supporting higher education,” according to J. Donald Monan, SJ, University chancellor and former president. Fr. Monan was the principle celebrant at the senator’s funeral Mass in Boston’s Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help on August 29. Campus minister Donald MacMillan, SJ, was a concelebrant.
Kennedy shared a 130-year family association with the Heights, stretching from grandfather John F. “Honey Fitz” Fitzgerald, who graduated in 1885, to stepson Grier Curran Raclin, Jr., Class of 2005. @BC presents a slideshow of photos from the University’s archives, taken during Kennedy’s four decades as a member of the Boston College community.
