Neil McCluskey

{{Infobox officeholder

| honorific-prefix =

| name = Neil McCluskey

| honorific-suffix =

| birth_name = Neil Gerard McCluskey

| birth_date = {{birth date|1920|12|15}}

| birth_place = Seattle, Washington, U.S.

| death_date = {{death date and age|2008|05|27|1920|12|15}}

| death_place = Fort Lauderdale, Florida, U.S.

| education = Gonzaga University (BA, MA)
Jesuit School of Theology (STL)
Columbia University (PhD)

}}

Neil Gerard McCluskey (December 15, 1920–May 27, 2008), a former Jesuit Catholic priest known as Reverend Neil Gerard McCluskey, S.J. from his ordination in the 1940s to 1975, was a prominent voice for Catholic Education in the United States in the time of Vatican II. McCluskey wrote the famous Land O'Lakes Statement, as a member of the committee headed by Fr. Theodore Hesburgh. McCluskey was also the last surviving nephew of Blessed Solanus Casey.{{cite web |last1=Review |first1=Catholic |title=Supporters pray for beatification of Father Solanus Casey |url=https://www.archbalt.org/supporters-pray-for-beatification-of-father-solanus-casey/ |website=Archdiocese of Baltimore |date=19 January 2012 |publisher=Archdiocese of Baltimore |accessdate=23 September 2020}}

Early life

McCluskey was born and raised in Seattle, Washington and attended O'Dea High School.{{cite web |title=O'Dea Dramatic Guild Names Cast For Play |url=https://washingtondigitalnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=CATHNWP19361120.2.109&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN------- |website=Washington Digital Newspapers |publisher=The Catholic Northwest Progress |accessdate=23 September 2020}} McCluskey's mother, Mary Genevieve Casey McCluskey was the younger sister of Blessed Solanus Casey. McCluskey entered the Society of Jesus in 1938. He earned a bachelor's degree in English and Philosophy and a master's degree in Philosophy from Gonzaga University in 1944 and 1945, respectively.{{cite book |last1=John L. |first1=Elias |last2=Lucinda A. |first2=Nolan |title=Educators in the Catholic Intellectual Tradition |date=2009 |publisher=Sacred Heart University Press |location=Fairfield, CT |pages=219–244 |contribution-url=https://digitalcommons.sacredheart.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?filename=8&article=1023&context=shupress_bks&type=additional|contribution= Neil G. McCluskey: A Public Voice for Catholic Education |contributor-last=Horell |contributor-first=Harold D. |accessdate=23 September 2020}}

He earned a licentiate in sacred theology from the Alma College, now the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley, in 1952.

Career in Education

In 1955, McCluskey moved to New York City and became an associate editor for America Magazine, the prominent Jesuit Catholic weekly journal, way he would stay until 1960.{{cite magazine |title=Education: How to Be a Rhodes Scholar |magazine=Time |date=April 16, 1956 |volume=LXVII |issue=16 |url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,808368,00.html |accessdate=23 September 2020}} While working at America, McCluskey earned his Ph.D. in social history in 1957, studying at Columbia Graduate School of Philosophy and Teachers College. It was also in New York City where he wrote his first few books on Catholic Education.

In 1960, McCluskey returned to his alma mater as an education professor. In his time at Gonzaga, he would be named Dean of the School of Education, and later Academic Vice President of Gonzaga.{{cite web |title=May 29, 1964 For Release: Immediate |url=https://digital.gonzaga.edu/digital/collection/p16011coll9/id/825/ |website=Gonzaga University Digital Archives |publisher=GU News Service Bureau |accessdate=23 September 2020}} McCluskey also helped develop Gonzaga’s Honors Program and created the Gonzaga in Florence study abroad program.{{cite web |last1=Smith |first1=Josh |title=Gonzaga-in-Florence commemorates 50 years |url=https://www.gonzagabulletin.com/news/gonzaga-in-florence-commemorates-50-years/article_f99c8280-3ccc-11e3-8ad6-0019bb30f31a.html |website=Gonzaga Bulletin |publisher=The Gonzaga Bulletin |accessdate=23 September 2020}} At Gonzaga, McCluskey continued writing books on Catholic education.

In 1966, Father Theodore Hesburgh brought Father McCluskey to the University of Notre Dame as a Visiting Professor of Education. McCluskey was then promoted to Dean-Director of the Notre Dame Institute for Studies in Education and founded the Notre Dame Journal of Education. While at Notre Dame, McCluskey became a member of the Religious Education Association Board of Directors where he would serve for 23 years. As a Jesuit at Notre Dame, a Holy Cross institution, McCluskey played a key role as intermediary between Notre Dame and the prominent Jesuit universities around the country who had had a contentious relationship for many years.

=The Land O’Lakes Statement=

The most influential of McCluskey’s writings came in 1967 when McCluskey, at the request of Notre Dame president Father Hesburgh, helped plan the meetings for the International Federation of Catholic Universities. These meetings culminated with the statement, written by McCluskey, entitled “The Nature of the Contemporary Catholic University,” better known as “The Land O’Lakes Statement.”{{cite web |last1=McCluskey S.J. |first1=Neil G. |title=The Idea of the Catholic University |url=http://archives.nd.edu/episodes/visitors/lol/idea.htm#:~:text=In%20a%20Catholic%20university%20all,given%20due%20honor%20and%20respect |website=Notre Dame Archives |publisher=University of Notre Dame |accessdate=23 September 2020}}{{cite book |last1=McCluskey S.J. |first1=Neil G. |title=The Idea of the Catholic University |date=1967 |publisher=privately published |location=Land O'Lakes, WI |url=https://cushwa.nd.edu/assets/245340/landolakesstatement.pdf |accessdate=23 September 2020}} The seminar, on the role of Catholic universities, sponsored by University of Notre Dame and hosted at Notre Dame's Land O'Lakes property, was attended by the presidents of the University of Notre Dame, Georgetown, Seton Hall, Boston College, Fordham, St. Louis University, and the Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico. Over a dozen other educators from North American Catholic institutions of higher education were also present. McCluskey would subsequently be named chair of the IFCU meeting at the Lovanium University at Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which would release “The Kinshasa Statement on the Catholic University in the Modern World of the IFCU,” as well as the Congress of Catholic Universities' “The Rome Statement on the Catholic University and the Aggiornamento.”

While at Notre Dame, McCluskey was also a member of the Board of Trustees at the neighboring Saint Mary's College. At the time the University of Notre Dame was preparing to start co-education and McCluskey was tasked with handling the merger of Saint Mary’s College and Notre Dame. The negotiations for the merger were ended, the merger never occurred, and McCluskey resigned his position on the Board of Trustees.

Later life

After leaving Notre Dame, McCluskey moved back to New York City. In 1975, he left the priesthood and married.{{cite web |title=Neil McCluskey Obituary |url=https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nytimes/obituary.aspx?n=neil-mccluskey&pid=111950260 |website=Legacy.com |publisher=The New York Times |accessdate=23 September 2020}} He spent much of the rest of his life teaching and writing about aging and gerontological studies.

McCluskey died in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on May 27, 2008.

Selected published works

=Books=

{{cite book | author= McCluskey, N. G. & Borgatta, E. F. | title = Aging and retirement: Prospects, planning and policy | publisher = Sage Publications | series = | volume = | edition = | year =1981 | location = Thousand Oaks, CA | pages = | url = | isbn =}}
{{cite book | author= Borgatta, E. F. & McCluskey, N.G. | title = Aging and society: Current research and policy perspectives | publisher = Sage Publications | series = | volume = | edition = | year =1980 | location = Thousand Oaks, CA | pages = | url = | isbn =}}
{{cite book | author= McCluskey, N. G. | title = The Catholic university: A modern appraisal | publisher = University of Notre Dame Press | series = | volume = | edition = | year =1970 | location = Notre Dame, IN | pages = | url = | isbn =}}
foreword by Theodore Hesburgh; {{cite book | author= | title = Catholic Education faces its future | publisher = Doubleday & Co., Inc.| series = | volume = | edition = | year =1968 | location = Garden City, NY | pages = | url = | isbn =}}
{{cite book | author= McCluskey, N. G. | title = Catholic Education in America: A documentary history: Classics in education | publisher = Teacher's College, Columbia University, Bureau of Publications | series = | volume = | edition = | year =1964 | location = New York | pages = | url = | isbn =}}
{{cite book | author= McCluskey, N. G. | title = Catholic Viewpoint on education | publisher = Doubleday & Co. | series = | volume = | edition = | year =1962 | location = Garden City, NY | pages = | url = | isbn =}}
{{cite book | author= McCluskey, N. G. | title = Catholic Viewpoint on education | publisher = Image Books | series = | volume = | edition = | year =1959 | location = Garden City, NY | pages = | url = | isbn =}}
{{cite book | author= McCluskey, N. G. | title = Public Schools and Moral Education | publisher = Columbia University Press | series = | volume = | edition = | year =1958 | location = New York | pages = | url = | isbn =}}