On January 1st, the new interim president Jesuit Father Ronny O’Dwyer S.J will take office. He is a returning staff member who was here from 2009-2013 as a theology teacher and assistant for student activities.

“Our faith is the greatest gift that we have” Interim president Father O’Dwyer S.J said. “ And handing out this faith that has been entrusted to us is the center of a catholic Jesuit education.”

 Before becoming the president he was the director of the Billiken Teacher Corps from 2016-2020. He is also working as Assistant to the Dean for Catholic School Initiatives and is an assistant professor in the Saint Louis University School of Education. He as a father has been with De Smet and its community even after his departure by doing masses, weddings, baptisms, and funerals.

“It’s only within a community that we can achieve the lofty goal set before us by Father Arrupe”,  Interim president Father O’Dwyer S.J said. “Here at De Smet we’ve always put an emphasis on community; building a community where the vision and values of the gospel are the starting point.”

Father O’Dwyer S.J went to a Jesuit high school in Denver, Colorado called Regis Jesuit High School. For higher education he is going to Vanderbilt University for his fourth degree. At Vanderbilt he is getting a degree in Educational Leadership and Policy. His other degrees are a Master of Arts in Catholic Educational Leadership from Saint Louis University and a M.A in Philosophy also from Saint Louis University. His last two higher education degrees are a Master’s in Divinity and an ecclesial degree from Boston College and a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from The Catholic University of America. He was also ordained in 2015.

“I’ve been given many gifts in my Jesuit life, among the greatest of these is the chance to teach here at De Smet,”  Interim president Father O’Dwyer S.J said. “after I was ordained a priest in 2015, I returned home to celebrate, in this chapel, a mass of thanksgiving and gratitude for the De Smet community that nourished my vocation as we move forward building community will require each of us to do our part to offer encouragement to one another to be agents of healing and reconciliation.”