Los
Angeles County
Biographies
LOYOLA UNIVERSITY
“To mould men after the model of the
Man-God and thus to form them to serve their fellow citizens, their country and
their God, this is the purpose, this is the ideal of Loyola University.” For resident and non-resident students,
Loyola University at Los Angeles is located on Loyola Boulevard at West
Eightieth Street. This is a Catholic
college for men, conducted and controlled by the Jesuit Fathers. The University is a member of the National
Catholic Educational Association and of the Western Association of Colleges and
Secondary Schools.
Rev. John J. Sullivan was the
founder and the first president of the university located in the Palisades at
Playa del Rey. St. Vincent’s College, of
which Loyola University at Los Angeles is the successor, was established in
1865 by the Vincentian Fathers. The
college received its charter from the state of California on the 15th
of August, 1869, and was therefore empowered to confer degrees and also granted
the privileges of a university. In June,
1911, the Vincentian Fathers discontinued collegiate activities, and in
September of the same year the Jesuit Fathers took over their work.
The first classes following the
transfer were held at 225 West Fifty-Second Avenue, where the college remained
until the site on Venice Boulevard was acquired in the spring of 1916. In February, 1918, it was found necessary to
incorporate under the name of Loyola College.
Here also was instituted in September, 1920, St. Vincent’s School of
Law, with evening courses extending over four years and leading to the LL. B.
degree. At the opening of the 1926-7
fall semester, commercial engineering, pre-legal and pre-medical courses were
begun. The growing body taxed this
building to capacity and it was found necessary to move to more spacious
quarters.
In 1928 a site was obtained on the
Del Ray Hills, within the metropolitan area of Los Angeles, and here were
constructed the first buildings of the new Loyola.
The high school continues to occupy
a site on Venice Boulevard, and Loyola College, now incorporated as a
university, opened the 1929 fall semester in its new quarters. It was deemed advisable to move the College
of Law to a central location, for this purpose extensive space in the Byrne
Building, conveniently situated in the downtown district, was acquired, and
here in September, 1929, the fall semester was begun.
The idea of the Jesuit system of
training – the ideal set before itself by Loyola University – is that true
education is a developing, through discipline, of the several distinctive human
powers of the student. No delusion is
entertained that it is possible or desirable in four years to store a young
mind with all the information necessary for a lifetime. Acquaintance with facts, the acquirement of
positive knowledge is duly insisted upon; but for the most part, as an
instrument employed in a process and not as the final purpose to be achieved.
And as an integral part of
education, the Jesuit idea calls for a systematic effort to develop character;
since both experience and common reason sustain the verdict that moral formation—the
building up of an enlightened conscience for the right fulfillment of civil,
social and religious duties—is never wisely assumed as the normal by-product of
physical and mental development.
While Loyola University is
essentially a Catholic institution, students not professing this faith are
admitted, provided they are willing, for the sake or order and discipline, to
conform respectfully to the religious observance of the university.
With ample space for expansion,
other units are gradually being added and when completed this will be an
institution with seventeen buildings.
Four hundred eighty students are enrolled at the University and of this
number two hundred are attending the College of Law in Los Angeles. The Loyola College of Law has been
particularly successful because of its adequate library facilities and because
of the personnel of its staff, composed of outstanding judges and leading
attorneys of the city.
A competent director is in charge of
athletic sports. Loyola is justly proud
of its football team, which has a fine record of achievement dating from 1931.
Rev. Hugh M. Duce, S. J., president
of the university, is a native of Richmond, Virginia, born in 1895. In Chicago he attended Cathedral College,
then under the direction of Archbishop Quigley, and completed his studies at
the university of which he is now president in 1915. In the summer of the same year Rev. Duce
joined the Jesuit Order at Los Gatos, California. Following his four years of theological and historical
studies in Belgium he returned to the United States and went to Spokane,
Washington, where he was dean of Gonzaga University until he joined the faculty
of Loyola University at Los Angeles as dean of the department of arts and
sciences. Since June, 1932, he has
served as president of the university, ably administering its affairs.
Transcribed by
V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: California of the South
Vol. IV, by John Steven McGroarty, Pages 189-191, Clarke Publ.,
Chicago, Los Angeles, Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2012 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES BIOGRAPIES