Rev. Brian J. Shanley, O.P.
President, St. John’s University
The anticipated closure and impending sale of the Staten Island, NY, campus presents us all with opportunities to remember, reminisce, and remind.
Another tangible step to memorialize our Staten Island legacy is to transfer named buildings and other campus places to the Queens, NY, campus. To that end, the Undergraduate Admissions Welcome Center is now named the Kelleher Welcome Center. A ceremony to mark the occasion will take place in early May.
While I never knew Denis P. Kelleher ’65CBA, ’91HON, Chair Emeritus, I feel like I did because I know his familiar story—it is the story of St. John’s. I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to meet several members of the Kelleher family, including Denis’ sons, Sean and Denis ’93L.
The son of a shoemaker, at the age of 19 he moved from County Kerry, Ireland, to New York to find meaningful employment and pursue an education that would enable him to help support his widowed mother and family back home. He later served his adopted country in the United States Army.
He started his financial services career two days after arriving in America, working as a “runner” for Merrill Lynch. Denis climbed the ranks of various financial services firms before founding his own company, Wall Street Access, a member of the New York Stock Exchange.
Denis was a proud graduate, generous benefactor, and visionary trustee who guided the University as Chair of the Board of Trustees. He helped shape St. John’s as much as he was shaped by it.
Denis and his wife, Carol, funded the $5.4 million Kelleher Center, a student activities center at the Staten Island campus. For years, the Kelleher Center bore his family name. His giant footprints are still left all over St. John’s at our campuses in Queens, NY, and Rome, Italy, and our locations in Paris, France, and Limerick, Ireland.
Denis was a man of faith. While he achieved great professional success, he never strayed from his humble roots. He was a generous philanthropist who supported the Catholic Church and countless charities quietly and unassumingly. Denis had a special relationship with the Congregation of the Mission (the Vincentians) who sponsor St. John’s and he was named an affiliate, a rare distinction bestowed on members of the laity.
One of his proudest honors earned was when he was named Grand Marshal of the New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade and saluted the contingent from his alma mater as they marched up Fifth Avenue.
There is a universal Irish greeting seen in homes, pubs, and on road signs throughout Ireland—Céad Míle Fáilte—that translates to “A Hundred Thousand Welcomes.”
How fitting that our Welcome Center now bears the Kelleher name and that same spirited Irish sentiment of 100,000 welcomes to all.
May God bless the memory of Denis P. Kelleher and the Kelleher family.
St. John’s University is not a client of Kelleher Financial Advisors, LLC. As noted in the announcement, the Kelleher family has made cash donations to St. John’s University. No compensation, however, was provided to St. John’s University in exchange for the above announcement.