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Remembering Fr. Charles Currie, SJ, President of Wheeling Jesuit and Xavier Universities and the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities

Rev. Charles L. Currie, SJ,was born in Philadelphia, Pa. on July 9, 1930. He attended St. Joseph’s Prep and after two years at Fordham University, entered the Society of Jesus at the Novitiate of St. Isaac Jogues in Wernersville, Pa. in 1950. He received his B.A. in Philosophy from Weston College in Massachusetts, a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the Catholic University of America and a Bachelor of Sacred Theology from Woodstock College in Maryland. He was ordained a priest on June 16, 1963.

Fr. Currie was a professor of Chemistry at Georgetown University for four years following ordination before becoming president of Wheeling Jesuit University at just 42 years old. After serving WJU for ten years, he went on to serve as president of Xavier University in Cincinnati for four years. Fr. Currie then returned to Georgetown for several years, directing the university’s Bicentennial celebration. In 1991, he was assigned to Saint Joseph’s University where he taught Theology and served as Rector of the Jesuit Community.

In 1997, Fr. Currie became president of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities (AJCU) in Washington, D.C., where he served for 14 years. He oversaw the development of JesuitNET, the nation’s first Jesuit distance education network, and strengthened the Association’s relationships with members of the U.S. Congress. After leaving AJCU in 2011, he founded and served as executive director of the Jesuit Digital Network, that among other things, helped provide online education to students in refugee camps.

Fr. Currie passed away in Georgetown, Washington, D.C. on January 4, 2019 at the age of 88.