LYNN — St. Mary’s School will present the 2018 Cardinal Cushing Award to Rev. Edwin D. Leahy, O.S.B., headmaster of St. Benedict’s Prep in New Jersey, at the Cushing Society Celebration April 11 at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem. At the same event, St. Mary’s will present the William F. Connell ’55 Service Award to John J. Tegan Jr. ’59.
St. Mary’s established the Cardinal Richard Cushing Society to celebrate the commitment to Catholic education and to honor its generous supporters. The Cardinal Cushing Award is presented annually to a vigorous champion of Catholic education whose personal and professional life mirror St. Mary’s mission.
Father Leahy became the 23rd headmaster of St. Benedict’s Prep in 1972. He graduated from St. Benedict’s in 1963, earned a degree in philosophy from Seton Hall University in 1968 and a Master’s in Divinity with distinction in 1975 from the Woodstock College at Union Theological Seminary, New York. In 1966 he took his first vows as a monk of the Benedictine Abbey of Newark and was ordained to the priesthood in 1972.
Father Leahy began his work at St. Benedict’s Prep in 1967, teaching biology and religion and coaching wrestling and football. After the school temporarily closed in 1972, Father Leahy, then 27, was chosen to re-open the school in 1973 with 89 students and 14 faculty members. St. Benedict’s has grown to more than 600 students and 58 faculty.
In 1988, the school opened a $9 million academic-athletic center, followed by a new library. A fieldhouse and a 60-student residence, named Leahy House, were added in 2000.
Among other awards, Father Leahy received the first Robert F. Kennedy Award for Urban School Leadership from the National Schools that Can organization in 2014. He has been awarded honorary doctorate degrees from Rutgers, St. Peter’s University and St. John’s University (Minnesota).
Previous Cardinal Cushing Award recipients include William F. Connell ’55; Carolyn and Peter S. Lynch; Sr. Janet Eisner, SND ’58, president of Emmanuel College; and Cardinal Sean O’Malley.
The William F. Connell ’55 Service Award is presented in recognition of consistent and exemplary service. It is named for a St. Mary’s graduate whose boundless generosity to the school included a $5 million bequest.
A Revere native, Tegan transferred to St. Mary’s as a sophomore. He spent two years in the seminary before earning his Bachelor’s at Suffolk University and a Master’s in education at Salem State.
Tegan is founder and chairman of Communications Technology Services. Prior to forming the company, he was in sales management at Digital Equipment Corp. He also taught in Revere Public Schools.
Tegan is a member of the board of trustees at Regis College, to which he pledged a $1 million gift in his late wife’s honor in 2014. He is also a member of the finance committee at the Paulist Center in Boston and volunteers twice a week as a chaplain at Brigham & Women’s Hospital. He and his wife volunteered to teach CCD at many parishes over the years.
For more information on the Cushing Society celebration, contact Jamie Gigliotti at [email protected] or 781-586-2067, or visit stmaryslynn.com/cushing.