University Mourns the Loss of Dedicated Jesuit Educator

Vincent J. Duminuco, S.J., the former rector of the Fordham Jesuit Community, died on Saturday, Sept. 6, at Murray-Weigel Hall, Bronx, N.Y.  He was 74.

Father Duminuco served as a secretary on the Fordham Board of Trustees for six years before his recent election as trustee emeritus, and held a faculty appointment in the Graduate School of Education (GSE).

“Father Duminuco served tirelessly as a faculty member, member of the Board of Trustees and rector of the Jesuit Community at Fordham,” said Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham University. “He brought to his work an encyclopedic knowledge of Jesuit education, a passionate devotion to Fordham and a wonderfully pastoral concern for all of the members of the Fordham Jesuit community.”

As rector of Fordham’s Jesuit Community, a position he held from 2001 through 2007, Father Duminuco oversaw the emotional, spiritual and physical well-being of the approximately 85 members of Fordham’s three Jesuit communities: Spellman Hall, Loyola Hall and Kohlmann Hall, home of the Jesuit faculty of Fordham Preparatory School. In addition, he supported the members in their apostolic ministry and maintained the operating budget for the Spellman Hall community’s facilities.

“Father Duminuco was a most competent and dedicated Jesuit who was very committed to education, and particularly a Jesuit education on a local, national and international level,” said John Cecero, S.J., rector of Fordham’s Jesuit community. “In addition to serving as rector, Father Duminuco was committed to Jesuit education and preparing future educators through the Joseph O’Hare Jesuit Teacher Leadership Program.”

Father Duminuco, who joined the Society of Jesus in 1951, spent much of the 2007-2008 academic year on sabbatical in private reading and reflection at Santa Clara University in California, and as a visiting professor at Gonzaga University’s Florence, Italy campus.

A graduate of Fordham Prep, Fordham College at Rose Hill and the Graduate School of Education, Father Duminuco began his teaching career at Fordham in 1970 as an adjunct associate professor in GSE. He earned his doctoral degree at Stanford University in 1969.

Father Duminuco served as director of the GSE’s Joseph O’Hare Jesuit Teacher Leadership Program since 2003. He was the founder and director of the International Jesuit Education Leadership Project. He edited and contributed of The Jesuit Ratio Studiorum: 400th Anniversary Perspectives (Fordham University Press, 2000).

Services are as follows:

WAKE:           Tuesday, September 9, 2008
4 to 6 p.m.
Fordham University Church
Bronx, New York

VIGIL SERVICE:
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
7:30 p.m.
Fordham University Church
Rose Hill campus, Bronx, N.Y.

MASS OF CHRISTIAN BURIAL:
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
10 a.m.
Fordham University Church
Rose Hill campus, Bronx, N.Y.

BURIAL:         Jesuit Cemetery
Auriesville, N.Y.

Notes of condolence may be sent to Father Duminuco’s sister:

Mrs. Ann Marie Ciaramella
50 Columbus Avenue, Apt. 904
Tuckahoe, NY 10707

In lieu of flowers, the family has asked that donations be sent to Fordham University or the New York Province Society of Jesus, 39 East 83rd Street, New York, NY 10028.