It was another cold winter morning, early and still dark. Helen
Jenkins was driving her son John to high school swim team practice.
"Mom," he told her, "I want to quit the team."
"You can't," she responded. "You're too good, and they need
you."
Her son never mentioned the desire again. The following year,
as a senior, he became captain of the swim team at Creighton Preparatory
School, an all-boys Jesuit high school in Omaha, Nebraska, and
one of the top swimmers in the state.
Helen Jenkins and others familiar with the story say it reveals
much about the attitude and values of her son, now Father John
Jenkins, CSC, president-elect of Notre Dame. From an early age
he understood not only the importance of obedience but of contributing
one's talents where needed by others.
Dutiful is one word people use to describe John Jenkins. Others
include humble, sincere, warm, friendly, selfless, thoughtful,
genuine.
"You generally know where John stands. He's without pretense,"
says Provost Nathan Hatch, for whom Jenkins worked as a vice president
and associate provost from July 2000 until April of this year,
when the University's trustees selected him to succeed Father
Malloy a year from now.
Because of his academic specialties -- ancient and medieval
philosophy and philosophy of religion -- people are likely to
assume Father Jenkins would be deadly serious. He is plenty cerebral.
Yet he also smiles easily and enjoys clowning with children. At
a fancy dinner some years ago with his family, for instance, he
chose to sit at the children's end of the table. He and one of
his young nieces could be seen melting butter and sugar over a
candle flame, mixing concoctions and laughing.
At age 50 Jenkins looks youthful and fit. He still swims, mostly
in the winter. In warmer weather he prefers to run. He and John
Affleck-Graves, his friend and former colleague in the provost's
office and newly appointed executive vice president, last fall
completed a marathon together in Chicago. (It was Jenkins' first,
the lanky South African's 93rd.)
Affleck-Graves concurs with the impression most people have
of his future boss as warm and welcoming but says there is more
to him than that.
"When you first meet John, you see him as a very soft, kind
and gentle person, and he is. But when you work with John you
realize that there's an inner toughness that isn't always readily
apparent."
* * *
John Ignatius Jenkins was born and raised in Omaha, the third
of Helen and Harry Jenkins'12 children. It was a perfectly balanced
brood: six sons, six daughters. Harry, a gastroenterologist
now retired, served on the faculty
of the medical school at Jesuit Creighton University in Omaha,
following in the footsteps of his own father, Harry Sr., a surgeon
and general practitioner who also taught at Creighton.
The parents, now
both 75, wed just after Helen finished nursing school and when
Harry was in his first year of medical school. By the time Harry
was an intern they had four children.
The neighborhood
where the Jenkinses settled was populated by Catholic families.
First-born Maureen says the seven houses on their block produced
a combined 49 children. That made for a ready supply of participants
in backyard football and driveway basketball. Maureen literally
married the boy next door, Dick Kizer, one of nine Kizer children.
Another Kizer, John, became one of John Jenkins' best friends.
They would travel around Europe together for three months after
their freshman year of college.
In an article prepared
for the Creighton Prep alumni newsletter, John Kizer recalls that
as kids all medical problems he and his siblings experienced were
handled by simply walking next door to see Dr. Jenkins.
Those who knew him say John Jenkins was as outgoing and competitive
as any kid in the neighborhood. He differed from many in that
he also cherished his time alone. It wasn't unusual for him to
disappear into the basement for long periods of time to read or
study, a habit that earned him the nickname "the rodent" from
his maternal grandfather. He also could focus intently on whatever
interested him. Helen Jenkins remembers her son spending hours
arranging toy army men in a corner, just so. "No one was allowed
to disturb them," she says.
John Kizer says that as he and his neighbor grew it became apparent
that his friend possessed an intellect and maturity beyond the
norm. One time in eighth grade, Jenkins was accused of and punished
for organizing a boy-girl party at his parents' home, a violation
of the rules at their Catholic junior high. A gathering did take
place, Kizer says, but his friend had nothing to do with it.
"He led his own defense, held his ground and was not in the
least intimidated," Kizer remembers. Jenkins was eventually cleared
of the charges. "It was the manner in which John handled this
situation that made me realize John was clearly a cut above the
rest of us."
In high school at
Creighton Prep, Kizer says, Jenkins was involved in many activities
and had many friends, no enemies and was universally respected.
"He would never start trouble but was the first to jump in the
fray to break things up if someone was getting hurt."
The Jenkinses enjoyed
free tuition at Creighton University as a benefit of their father's
employment, so that's where many of the children went. Maureen
was the first to enroll, eventually earning a nursing degree like
her mother. Then came the next in line, Tom Jenkins. At the urging
of a friend attending Notre Dame, Tom later decided to transfer.
Maureen says their
parents said Tom could go to ND if he could find the money for
tuition. With so many children coming up for college, they couldn't
offer much help.
"They would drop
him off at the Interstate with a suitcase, and he would hitchhike
from Omaha to Notre Dame," Maureen Kizer recalls.
When their time came,
the two Johns (Jenkins and Kizer) enrolled at Creighton too, but
John Kizer says they became disillusioned at registration. They
had been next-door neighbors and had gone through grade school
and high school together. This felt too much like more of the
same. That, coupled with the frustration of waiting in line and
finding classes full, led them to make plans to do something different
the following year. After freshman year and a summer of working,
they took off on their European adventure.
Kizer says he picked such destinations as golf's fabled Old
Course at Saint Andrews in Scotland and the beaches of San Tropez.
His traveling companion led them to the Louvre and Notre Dame
Cathedral in Paris, the Dachau concentration camp near Munich,
and the Sistine Chapel and Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome. Along
the way, they spent a lot of time discussing what they wanted
to do with their lives, he says.
"John made it very
clear to me . . . that he was not interested in fame or fortune
but wanted to do something very significant with his life that
would somehow make a contribution to society."
After returning to
Omaha the friends re-enrolled at Creighton, but Jenkins had decided
to transfer. At his mother's urging, he settled on joining his
older brother at Notre Dame. Things hadn't improved much financially,
so, like Tom, he sometimes had to thumb his way across the country.
In 1976 he earned his bachelor's degree in philosophy then stayed
on another two years to earn a master's in the same subject. (After
earning his bachelor's in finance in 1974, Tom went back to Creighton
and earned a law degree.)
While studying toward
his master's, John Jenkins worked as a teaching assistant. One
of his responsibilities involved grading papers. Among the freshmen
taking an introductory philosophy class John's second year as
an assistant, 1977, was Paul Weithman '81, now chair of Notre
Dame's philosophy department and a close friend of Jenkins.
Weithman says he remembers how conscientious Jenkins was about
grading, providing criticism where needed but also encouragement.
He even recalls a short paper he wrote about Sartre and existentialism
that Jenkins graded. Weithman says he felt insecure about the
paper and, at the time, university life in general.
"I can almost recite vertabim what he [Jenkins] wrote: 'This
is an excellent paper, keep up this very fine work.'"
Weithman did, eventually
earning Ph.D. from Harvard.
Jenkins'
decision to pursue a religious vocation came as no great surprise
to his family. Though he had dated in high school and was even
voted Prom King (his date now has a son at Notre Dame), it
was clear to many that deep issues occupied his thoughts. In
high school, Maureen Kizer says, "he would spend time journaling
and doing other things that none of the rest of us would ever
dream of doing."
"I always had the
idea that John was trying to figure out life," John Kizer says.
At Creighton Prep
he had participated in
a group that met regularly to discuss religious questions. Harry
Jenkins says it was a religion teacher at the school, Father Bill
O'Leary, who still teaches there, who encouraged his son to consider
a religious vocation.
Add his father, "His
mother, of course, always wanted him to be one."
* *
*
Maureen Kizer says
that if she had been asked to predict where her kid brother would
end up spending his priestly career, she would have guessed missions
work. She said as much to one of the older Holy Cross priests,
Father Bill Lewers, CSC, at her brother's ordination ceremony
in the Basilica in 1983. As she recalls, Lewers, who was among
Jenkins' closest spiritual advisers before his death in 1997,
responded, "I think they have other things planned for John."
The CSCs may not
have projected John Jenkins as a future president of Notre Dame,
but he had clearly been pegged as a star scholar.
After his ordination
the order dispatched him to the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley,
where he earned a Master of Divinity and licentiate in sacred
theology. Then came Oxford University, where he received a bachelor's
degree in philosophy in 1987 and a doctorate two years later.
While at Oxford, he also taught in Notre Dame's London Program.
Jenkins joined the
philosophy faculty in South Bend in 1990 and over the years has
taught such courses as Faith and Reason; Wisdom: A Study of the
Concept in the Bible, Plato and Nietzsche; and Human Inquiry and
Divine Revelation. He is the author of Knowledge and Faith
in Thomas Aquinas, published by Cambridge University Press
in 1997. Last year, while on sabbatical, he continued work on
a book about Saint Augustine.
Besides teaching philosophy, from 1997 until he joined the provost's
office in 2000 Jenkins served as religious superior of Holy Cross
priests and those brothers assigned to Notre Dame. One of the
responsibilities that goes with this post is to serve as an ex-officio
or non-elected member of the highest governing bodies of the University:
the Board of Trustees and the Board of Fellows. The latter is
a 12-member oversight body made up of six lay persons and six
CSCs. It elects the trustees, among other functions. Jenkins relinquished
those posts when he became vice president and associate provost
four years ago.
Heading an institution
as large and visible as Notre Dame entails many daunting challenges:
One of the most vital and time-consuming for any college president
is raising money. The goal for the University's next capital campaign
is expected to exceed the record $1 billion raised last time.
More particular to Notre Dame, many alumni (and all subway alumni)
demand that the football team contend, at least occasionally,
for a national championship. And then there's the delicate balancing
act of preserving Notre Dame's Catholic character and traditional
strength in undergraduate education while fortifying research
and scholarship and graduate study.
Hatch thinks his
former associate provost has "a very clear sense" of what Notre
Dame should be. It's a vision in line with that of his predecessor,
Malloy: High academic standards. Strong research. Excellent teaching.
A religious identity that helps form students' character.
Those who have worked
with the priest say that besides being a decisive administrator,
he's a "uniter" and a "reconciler" and possesses other qualities
essential to peace-making.
"He's a person that
you very quickly feel a deep sense of trust in," Affleck-Graves
says, while Arts and Letters Dean Mark Roche observes, "He's one
of those persons who just has a capacity to win people over."
His sincerity is
bound to be an asset in other aspects of his job. Weithman, who
once benefitted from Jenkins' pastoral approach to grading papers,
predicts that when Domers meet his friend they'll feel like they're
the most important person in the world to him. "And for that moment
they are. It's genuine."
* *
*
Asked at the news
conference announcing his appointment if when he started at Notre
Dame as a student he dreamed of becoming president, Jenkins said,
"What I have dreamed of is to serve at this great university."
Maureen Kizer says she and other family members keep telling
people that being president is the last thing her brother would
aspire to, "but he's certainly capable of it." She immediately
adds, "It's definitely not about the power. It's about the service."
It is often said
about a priest at Notre Dame, usually in remembrance of him, that
he was first and foremost just that, a priest. Weithman says the
same applies to the makeup of his friend, that he is a good and
devout Catholic priest who through prayer will try to discern
what he is called to do, what is needed from him.
This time it won't involve staying on the swimming team.
(July 2004)
