Maguire, Bernard A., 1818-1886.

Bernard A. Maguire was born at Edgeworth, Ireland, on Feb. 11, 1818. When he was six years of age his family immigrated to the United States and settled at Frederick, Md. His early education was at St. John's Literary Institute in Frederick. After graduating from St. John's he enrolled in Georgetown College, where he entered the Society of Jesus on Sept. 20, 1837. After completing theological and philosophical studies at Georgetown and teaching for a year at St. John's Literary Institute he was ordained to the priesthood on Sept. 27, 1850. Father Maguire played an important role in the history of Georgetown University during the mid to late 19th century. He taught grammar, geometry and French, served as prefect of discipline, and in Jan. 1853 became president of the college. He served in this post -- the first of two non-consecutive terms--until Oct., 1858. During his first term, Fr. Maguire initiated a program of construction and renovation. The building now bearing his name was erected at this time. It was also during Fr. Maguire's first term that college enrollment almost doubled, from 176 to 333 students. His second term, which ran from Jan. 1866 to July 1870, was not as dramatically successful as the first, in large part because of the lingering ill effects of the Civil War. During this time, however, the foundation was laid for the establishment in 1870 of the Georgetown School of Law, the first law school in the United States at a Jesuit institution of higher learning.. Father Maguire left Georgetown at the end of his second term in order to devote himself to missionary work. He first went to St. Aloysius' Church in Washington, D.C., where he had previously served during 1859-65, and then to Boston, Mass., to take charge of the missions. During this last period of his life Fr. Maguire achieved renown in the American church as a preacher of mission sermons. He died in Philadelphia, Pa., at St. Joseph's Church in Willing's Alley, on April 26, 1886, and was interred in the Georgetown College burying ground.