JJ.

Havens Richards
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The Reverend

J. Havens Richards
SJ

Portrait photograph
 31st President of Georgetown University

In office

1888–1898

Preceded by James A. Doonan

Succeeded John D. Whitney

by

Personal details

Born Havens Cowles Richards

November 8, 1851

Columbus, Ohio, U.S.

Died June 9, 1923 (aged 71)

Worcester, Massachusetts,
U.S.

Alma mater ● Boston College

● Woodstock College
● Harvard University

Orders

Ordination August 29, 1885

by James Gibbons
Joseph Havens
Richards (born Havens
SJ

Cowles Richards;
November 8, 1851 –
June 9, 1923) was an
American Catholic priest
and Jesuit who became
a prominent president of
Georgetown University,
where he instituted major
reforms and significantly
enhanced the quality and
stature of the university.
Born to a prominent Ohio
family, his father was an
Episcopal priest who
controversially converted
to Catholicism and had
the infant Richards
secretly baptized as a
Catholic.
Richards became the
president of Georgetown
University in 1888 and
undertook significant
construction, such as the
completion of Healy Hall,
which included work on
Gaston Hall and Riggs
Library, and the building
of Dahlgren Chapel.
Richards sought to
transform Georgetown
into a modern,
comprehensive
university. To that end,
he bolstered the
graduate programs,
expanded the School of
Medicine and Law
School, established the
Georgetown University
Hospital, improved the
astronomical
observatory, and
recruited prominent
faculty. He also
navigated tensions with
the newly established
Catholic University of
America, which was
located in the same city.
Richards fought
anti-Catholic
discrimination by Ivy
League universities,
resulting in Harvard Law
School admitting
graduates of some Jesuit
universities.
Upon the end of his term
in 1898, Richards
engaged in pastoral work
attached to Jesuit
educational institutions
throughout the
northeastern United
States. He became the
president of Regis High
School and the Loyola
School in New York City
in 1915, and he was then
made superior of the
Jesuit retreat center on
Manresa Island in
Connecticut. Richards
died at the College of the
Holy Cross in 1923.
Contents

● 1
● Early life
○ 1.1
○ Ancestry
○
○ 1.2
○ Education
○
● 2
● Georgetown University
 ○ 2.1
○ Curriculum improvements
○
○ 2.2
○ Construction
○
○ 2.3
○ Anti-Catholicism in the Ivy League
○
● 3
● Pastoral work
●
● 4
● Later years
●
● 5
● Notes and references
○ 5.1
○ Citations
○
○ 5.2
○ Sources
○
● 6
● External links
●

Early life
Richards as a student at Boston College.

Richards was born on

November 8, 1851, in
Columbus, Ohio. His [1]

parents were Henry

Livingston Richards and [a]

Cynthia Cowles, who

married on May 1, 1842,
in Worthington, Ohio.
Havens Cowles was the
youngest of eight
children, three of whom
died in infancy. His
surviving siblings were:
Laura Isabella (b. 1843),
Henry Livingston, Jr. (b.
1846), and William
Douglas (b. 1848). [3]

Henry Livingston
Richards was an
Episcopal priest and the
pastor of a church in
Columbus. To the
surprise of many, on
January 25, 1852, he
sought to convert to
Catholicism, two months
after Havens Cowles's
birth. He was said to
[4]

have been moved during

a visit to New Orleans,
where he saw whites and
enslaved blacks
receiving the Eucharist
side by side at the altar
rail in a Catholic church. [5]

He was baptized by
Caspar Henry Borgess at
the Holy Cross Church in
Columbus. One day,
following his conversion,
he snuck out of the
house with the infant
Havens Cowles and
brought him to Holy
Cross, where Havens
Cowles Richards was
also baptized by
Borgess. These two
conversions disturbed
Havens Cowles's mother,
Cynthia, who was
Episcopalian, and her
relatives encouraged her
to leave her husband.
Likewise, Henry
Livingston was
ostracized by his family
and acquaintances in
Ohio. As a result, he
abandoned his ministry
and moved to New York
City to search for work in
business, leaving his
family in the care of his
father in Granville, Ohio. [4]

While there, Cynthia

Cowles followed her
husband in converting to
Catholicism. She moved
with her children to
Jersey City, New Jersey,
in September 1855 and [6]

was conditionally
baptized on May 14,
1856, at St. Peter's
Church. All the other
children were eventually
baptized as well.[1]

Ancestry
Richards was born into a
prominent family, which
traced its lineage to
colonial America on both
his paternal and
maternal sides. His
[7]

uncle was Orestes

Brownson, a Catholic
activist and intellectual.
[8]

On his mother's side, he

was a descendant of
James Kilbourne, a
colonel in the U.S. Army
who led a regiment on
the American frontier in
the War of 1812, founded
the city of Worthington,
Ohio, and became a
United States
Representative from
Ohio.[9]

On his father's side,

Richards's lineage
included combatants in
the American
Revolutionary War, such
as William Richards (his
great-grandfather), who
led a contingent of troops
that took part in the siege
at the Battle of Fort
Slongo and who later
[10]
fought in the Battle of
Bunker Hill as a colonel.
Through William
Richards, he traced his
ancestry to James
Richards, who was
documented in 1634 as
residing on the Eel River
in Plymouth,
Massachusetts. [2]

Education

Richards as a young Jesuit

Richards's father sought

to send all his children to
Catholic schools but was
at times unable to.[11]

Therefore, Richards
attended both Catholic
and public schools in
Jersey City. At the age
[2]

of fourteen, he quit
school and took up work
as a bookkeeper for his
father. Four years later,
the two of them moved to
Boston, Massachusetts,
where they worked in the
steel industry.
[5]

In September 1869
Richards enrolled at
Boston College. The rest
of his family joined him
and his father in Boston
in July of that year.
Richards remained at the
college for three years,
where he was active in
school sports, before
[5]
entering the Society of
Jesus and proceeding to
the novitiate in Frederick,
Maryland, on August 7,
1872. Upon entering the
[12]

order, he changed his

name to Joseph Havens
Richards. [3]
At the end of his
probationary period,
Richards was sent to
Woodstock College in
1874, where he studied
philosophy for four
years. He then went to
[5]

Georgetown University
as a professor of physics
and mathematics, doing
[12]

work in chemistry during

his vacations. In the
[5]

summers of 1879 and

1880, he was sent by the
Jesuit provincial superior
to study at Harvard
University. In July 1883,
[13]

he returned to
Woodstock for four years
of theological studies.
The provincial superior
made an exception for
Richards to be ordained
after only two years
because his father was
ill. Therefore, on August
[12]

29, 1885, he was

ordained a priest by
James Gibbons, the
Archbishop of Baltimore,
in the college's chapel.
[5]

He completed his
theological studies in
1887 and returned to
Frederick to complete his
tertianship. [12]

Georgetown University

Immediately after the

completion of his Jesuit
formation, Richards was
made the rector and
president of Georgetown
University, taking office
on August 15, 1888, and
[14]

succeeding James A.
Doonan. He had a plan
[15]

to transform Georgetown
into a modern,
comprehensive
institution that would be
the leading university of
both the Catholic Church
and the United States. [16]

This role would be

amplified by the fact that
the university was
located in the nation's
capital. [17]

Curriculum improvements

Though Richards sought

to dispel the perception
that Jesuit schools were
of inferior quality than
their secular
counterparts, he
maintained that the
curriculum of the Ratio
Studiorum should be
preserved. Therefore,
[18]

he revitalized the
graduate programs of the
university, introduced
new courses in the law
school, and oversaw
construction of a new law
building in 1892. He also
sought to establish an
electrical, chemical, and
civil engineering
program, but this did not
come to fruition. For the
[19]
first time, graduates of
the university were
authorized to wear a
hood as part of their
academic regalia. [20]

Richards sought to
induce prominent
scholars to join the
faculty of Georgetown;
he recruited the Austrian
astronomer Johann
Georg Hagen and
several distinguished
scientists from the
Smithsonian Institution. [17]
Richards at Healy Hall

Graduate courses in the

arts and sciences were
re-established in 1889,
and courses in theology
and philosophy returned
to the university, which
had previously been
moved to Boston and
then to Woodstock
College. Richards
[19]

criticized the decision to

relocate the theological
training of Jesuits from
Georgetown to the
"semi-wilderness" of
Woodstock, which was
"remote from libraries,
from contact with the
learned world, and from
all the stimulating
influences which affect
intellectual life".
[21]

Richards expanded the

School of Medicine by
establishing a chair and
laboratory of
bacteriology; increasing
the number of instructors
in anatomy, physiology,
and surgery; and
improving the chemistry
curriculum. He also
[19]

standardized the
curriculum and increased
its duration from three to
four years. The property
[17]
of the medical school,
which theretofore had
been owned by its own
legal corporation, was
transferred to the
President and Directors
of Georgetown College,
giving Richards authority
over the appointment of
professors. Richards
[19]

also desired to have a

hospital adjoined to the
medical school, but there
was initially little interest
in this among faculty and
donors. Eventually,
[22]
Georgetown University
Hospital was completed
in 1898, and it was put
under the care of the
Sisters of Saint Francis. [23]

Richards worked with

Bishop John Keane to
address tensions with
the newly established
Catholic University of
America, which was
located in the same city
and run by the American
bishops. Many feared
[24]

that it would interfere

with Georgetown
University, and it did
[24]

indeed seek to take

control of Georgetown's
law and medical schools
as its own. This proposal
was approved by the
Jesuit superior general,
Luis Martín, who feared
that the Vatican might
suppress Georgetown
altogether if it did not
acquiesce. The faculties
of the law and medical
schools publicly
protested the proposal,
and Catholic University
dropped its plans. [25]

Eventually, an agreement
was reached that
Catholic University would
focus exclusively on the
graduate education of
secular priests.
[24]

Construction
Dahlgren Chapel (photo c. 1904)

Richards's most
immediate task upon
taking office was the
completion of Healy Hall,
construction of which
began in 1877 under a
predecessor, Patrick F.
Healy, but whose interior
remained unfinished.
Richards was able to
have the bulk of the work
completed by February
20, 1889, the date on
which the university
began its three-day
centenary celebration. [26]

Within Healy Hall, he

made improvements to
Gaston Hall and
[27]

oversaw the start of work

on Riggs Library. [28]

Richards improved the

university's astronomical
observatory, placing
Hagen in charge of it,
which raised the stature
of the university in
scientific circles.
[27]

In 1892 Richards
received a donation from
the socialite Elizabeth
Wharton Drexel for the
construction of Dahlgren
Chapel of the Sacred
Heart. That year, he also
procured the library of
historian John Gilmary
Shea, which extensively
documented the history
of the Catholic Church in
the United States.[22]

Richards's presidency
came to an end on July
3, 1898, by which time
[29]

he had experienced
worsening health for two
years. He was [30]

succeeded by John D.
Whitney. [15]

Anti-Catholicism in the Ivy League

Richards also took up

the cause of fighting
discrimination against
Catholics by prominent
Protestant universities,
especially those of the
Ivy League. In 1893,
James Jeffrey Roche,
the editor of the Catholic
Boston newspaper The
Pilot, wrote to Charles
William Eliot, the
president of Harvard
University, about the fact
that no Catholic
universities were
included on the list of
institutions whose
graduates were
automatically eligible for
admission to Harvard
Law School. Eliot's
[31]

response, which was

published in The Pilot,
was that the quality of
education at Catholic
universities was inferior
to that offered at their
Protestant counterparts.
Richards and other
Catholic educators had
long believed that
anti-Catholic
discrimination had been
at work at Protestant
colleges.[13]
Richards sought a
retraction from Eliot,
writing to him that
graduates of reputable
Catholic colleges were
better prepared to study
law than any other
college graduates, and
he included information
on Georgetown's
curriculum. Eliot
responded by adding
Georgetown, the College
of the Holy Cross, and
Boston College to the
list. Upon the provincial
superior's instruction,
Richards then
unsuccessfully lobbied to
have all 24 Jesuit
colleges in the United
States added to the list. [13]

Pastoral work
Richards in 1890

Following his retirement

from the presidency,
Richards became the
spiritual father of the
novitiate in Frederick. [30]
He remained interested
in Georgetown's
astronomical
observatory, and he
petitioned to have a
station established in
South Africa so that the
entire sky could be
studied. The following
[19]

year, he became the

spiritual father of Boston
College, where he
established the Boston
Alumni Sodality. When
not in Boston, he spent
time in Philadelphia and
Brooklyn, where he
worked with the New
York Sodality. He also
began cataloguing
Catholic works in the
New York Public Library,
but his health soon
prevented him from
continuing. Upon the
recommendation that it
would benefit his health,
Richards moved to the
novitiate in Los Gatos,
California, in March
1900, but he was there
only briefly before visiting
his family in Boston after
his mother's death. [32]

Richards returned to Los

Gatos in April. In early
1901, he moved back to
Frederick, Maryland,
where he became
minister of the novitiate. [33]
Richards then went to St.
Andrew-on-Hudson in
Hyde Park, New York, as
minister in January 1903,
when the novitiate
relocated there. Several
months later, he was
made the procurator and
was placed in charge of
the mission in Pleasant
Valley. He transferred
[34]

again to Boston College

in 1906 as spiritual
father, remaining there
for a year. From 1907 to
July 1909, he was
prefect of the Church of
St. Ignatius Loyola at
Boston College. [35]

Richards then proceeded

to the Church of St.
Ignatius Loyola in New
York City as operarius. [b]

After four years, he was

sent to Canisius College
in Buffalo as minister and
prefect of studies. He
ceased to be minister in
July 1914 but remained
as prefect. He was
[35]

appointed the rector and

president of both Regis
High School and the
Loyola School in New
York the following year, [35]

succeeding David W.
Hearn. Concurrently, he
[37][38]

became the pastor of the

Church of St. Ignatius
Loyola. Being advanced
[39]
in age, he retired from
the position on March 25,
1919, and was [40]

succeeded by James J.
Kilroy as pastor and as
president of Regis and
Loyola. [37][38]

Later years
Following his positions in
New York, Richards was
made superior of
Manresa Island in
Norwalk, Connecticut,
where he received Jesuit
scholastics and priests
from the Diocese of
Hartford during the
summer for their retreats.
During the rest of the
year, he lived on the
island with just one other
Jesuit. In December
1921, he was transferred
to Weston College as
spiritual father and
procurator, ceasing to
hold the latter role in
September 1922. [41]

On March 2, 1923,
Richards suffered a
stroke, which left his
speech impaired and the
right side of his body
paralyzed. He spent
seven weeks in the
hospital before going to
the College of the Holy
Cross in Worcester,
Massachusetts. He
[41]

suffered another stroke

on June 8 and died the
following day. [42]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Joseph Havens Richards.

Notes and references

[2]
● ^ Henry Livingston Richards's name was sometimes spelled as Livingstone.
[36]
● ^ An operarius is a Jesuit who works as a priest away from his Jesuit community.

Citations
● ^
● Jump up to:
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● Obituary: Father Joseph Havens Richards, S.J. 1924, p. 248
● ^
● Jump up to:
abc
● Johnson & Brown 1904, "Richards"
● ^
● Jump up to:
ab
● Worthington Genealogies 1903, p. 184
● ^
● Jump up to:
ab
● Richards 1913, pp. 239–40
● ^
● Jump up to:
abcdef
● Shea 1891, p. 310
● ^ Richards 1913, p. 258
● ^ Worthington Genealogies 1903, p. 182–184
● ^ Richards, William (December 1, 1891). "RE: Orestes A. Brownson". Letter to Henry F.
Brownson. Washington, D.C. Archived from the original on October 2, 2015. Retrieved
December 30, 2018.
● ^ "Kilbourne, James, (1770–1850)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved December 31, 2018.
● ^ Rhees 1896, p. 155
● ^ Obituary: Father Joseph Havens Richards, S.J. 1924, p. 249
● ^
● Jump up to:
abcd
● Obituary: Father Joseph Havens Richards, S.J. 1924, p. 250
● ^
● Jump up to:
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● Mahoney 2004, p. 37
● ^ Obituary: Father Joseph Havens Richards, S.J. 1924, pp. 250–251
● ^
● Jump up to:
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● Curran 2010, p. 397
● ^ Curran 2012, p. 274
● ^
● Jump up to:
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● Curran 2012, p. 275
● ^ Bender, p. 10
● ^
● Jump up to:
abcde
● Obituary: Father Joseph Havens Richards, S.J. 1924, p. 253
● ^ Richards, J. Havens (June 16, 1896). "Letter from the Rector". Letter to the public.
Georgetown University. Retrieved December 31, 2018 – via Internet Archive.
● ^ McFadden 1990, p. 164
● ^
● Jump up to:
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● Obituary: Father Joseph Havens Richards, S.J. 1924, p. 254
● ^ Obituary: Father Joseph Havens Richards, S.J. 1924, p. 255
● ^
● Jump up to:
abc
● Obituary: Father Joseph Havens Richards, S.J. 1924, pp. 255–256
● ^ Curran 2012, p. 279
● ^ Obituary: Father Joseph Havens Richards, S.J. 1924, p. 251
● ^
● Jump up to:
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● Obituary: Father Joseph Havens Richards, S.J. 1924, p. 252
● ^ Easby-Smith 1907, p. 161
● ^ Obituary: Father Joseph Havens Richards, S.J. 1924, p. 260
 ● ^
● Jump up to:
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● Obituary: Father Joseph Havens Richards, S.J. 1924, p. 262
● ^ Mahoney 2004, p. 36
● ^ Obituary: Father Joseph Havens Richards, S.J. 1924, p. 263
● ^ Obituary: Father Joseph Havens Richards, S.J. 1924, p. 264
● ^ Obituary: Father Joseph Havens Richards, S.J. 1924, p. 265
● ^
● Jump up to:
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● Obituary: Father Joseph Havens Richards, S.J. 1924, p. 266
● ^ Gramatowski 2013, p. 20
● ^
● Jump up to:
ab
● "Presidents of Regis". Regis High School. Archived from the original on July 31, 2016.
Retrieved February 26, 2020.
● ^
● Jump up to:
ab
● "Presidents of Loyola School". Loyola School. Archived from the original on December 30,
2018. Retrieved December 30, 2018.
● ^ Andreassi 2014, p. 92
● ^ Obituary: Father Joseph Havens Richards, S.J. 1924, p. 267
● ^
● Jump up to:
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● Obituary: Father Joseph Havens Richards, S.J. 1924, p. 268
● ^ Obituary: Father Joseph Havens Richards, S.J. 1924, pp. 268–269

Sources
● Andreassi, Anthony (2014). Teach Me to Be Generous: The First Century of Regis High School in New
York City. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8232-5636-5. Archived from the original on February
26, 2020. Retrieved February 25, 2020 – via Google Books.
● Bender, Arthur C. A Brief History of the New York Province (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on
November 19, 2018. Retrieved December 29, 2018.
● Curran, Robert Emmett (2010). A History of Georgetown University: The Quest for Excellence,
1889–1964. Vol. 2. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press. ISBN 978-1-58901-690-3.
● Curran, Robert Emmett (2012). Shaping American Catholicism: Maryland and New York, 1805-1915.
Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press. ISBN 978-0-8132-1967-7. JSTOR
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● Easby-Smith, James Stanislaus (1907). Georgetown University in the District of Columbia, 1789–1907:
Its Founders, Benefactors, Officers, Instructors and Alumni. Vol. 1. New York: Lewis Publishing
Company. OCLC 633425041. Archived from the original on December 28, 2018. Retrieved December
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Future. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press. ISBN 978-0-87840-502-2. Archived from the
original on December 30, 2018. Retrieved December 30, 2018.
● "Obituary: Father Joseph Havens Richards, S.J." (PDF). Woodstock Letters. 53 (2): 248–271. June
1924. Archived (PDF) from the original on February 24, 2020. Retrieved February 24, 2020 – via Jesuit
Archives.
● Rhees, William J. (1896). Register of the District of Columbia Society of the American Revolution,
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Havens Richards
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The Reverend

J. Havens Richards
SJ
 Portrait photograph

31st President of Georgetown University

In office

1888–1898

Preceded by James A. Doonan

Succeeded John D. Whitney

by

Personal details

Born Havens Cowles Richards

November 8, 1851

Columbus, Ohio, U.S.

Died June 9, 1923 (aged 71)

 Worcester, Massachusetts,
U.S.

Alma mater ● Boston College

● Woodstock College
● Harvard University

Orders

Ordination August 29, 1885

by James Gibbons

Joseph Havens Richards SJ (born Havens Cowles Richards; November 8, 1851 – June 9, 1923)
was an American Catholic priest and Jesuit who became a prominent president of Georgetown
University, where he instituted major reforms and significantly enhanced the quality and stature of
the university. Born to a prominent Ohio family, his father was an Episcopal priest who
controversially converted to Catholicism and had the infant Richards secretly baptized as a Catholic.

Richards became the president of Georgetown University in 1888 and undertook significant
construction, such as the completion of Healy Hall, which included work on Gaston Hall and Riggs
Library, and the building of Dahlgren Chapel. Richards sought to transform Georgetown into a
modern, comprehensive university. To that end, he bolstered the graduate programs, expanded the
School of Medicine and Law School, established the Georgetown University Hospital, improved the
astronomical observatory, and recruited prominent faculty. He also navigated tensions with the newly
established Catholic University of America, which was located in the same city. Richards fought
anti-Catholic discrimination by Ivy League universities, resulting in Harvard Law School admitting
graduates of some Jesuit universities.

Upon the end of his term in 1898, Richards engaged in pastoral work attached to Jesuit educational
institutions throughout the northeastern United States. He became the president of Regis High
School and the Loyola School in New York City in 1915, and he was then made superior of the
Jesuit retreat center on Manresa Island in Connecticut. Richards died at the College of the Holy
Cross in 1923.
 Contents

● 1
● Early life
○ 1.1
○ Ancestry
○
○ 1.2
○ Education
○
● 2
● Georgetown University
○ 2.1
○ Curriculum improvements
○
○ 2.2
○ Construction
○
○ 2.3
○ Anti-Catholicism in the Ivy League
○
● 3
● Pastoral work
●
● 4
● Later years
●
● 5
● Notes and references
○ 5.1
○ Citations
○
○ 5.2
○ Sources
○
● 6
● External links
●

Early life
Richards as a student at Boston College.

[1]
Richards was born on November 8, 1851, in Columbus, Ohio. His parents were Henry Livingston
[a]
Richards and Cynthia Cowles, who married on May 1, 1842, in Worthington, Ohio. Havens Cowles

was the youngest of eight children, three of whom died in infancy. His surviving siblings were: Laura
[3]
Isabella (b. 1843), Henry Livingston, Jr. (b. 1846), and William Douglas (b. 1848).

Henry Livingston Richards was an Episcopal priest and the pastor of a church in Columbus. To the
surprise of many, on January 25, 1852, he sought to convert to Catholicism, two months after
[4]
Havens Cowles's birth. He was said to have been moved during a visit to New Orleans, where he

saw whites and enslaved blacks receiving the Eucharist side by side at the altar rail in a Catholic
[5]
church. He was baptized by Caspar Henry Borgess at the Holy Cross Church in Columbus. One

day, following his conversion, he snuck out of the house with the infant Havens Cowles and brought
him to Holy Cross, where Havens Cowles Richards was also baptized by Borgess. These two
conversions disturbed Havens Cowles's mother, Cynthia, who was Episcopalian, and her relatives
encouraged her to leave her husband. Likewise, Henry Livingston was ostracized by his family and
acquaintances in Ohio. As a result, he abandoned his ministry and moved to New York City to
[4]
search for work in business, leaving his family in the care of his father in Granville, Ohio. While

there, Cynthia Cowles followed her husband in converting to Catholicism. She moved with her
[6]
children to Jersey City, New Jersey, in September 1855 and was conditionally baptized on May 14,
[1]
1856, at St. Peter's Church. All the other children were eventually baptized as well.
Ancestry
Richards was born into a prominent family, which traced its lineage to colonial America on both his
[7]
paternal and maternal sides. His uncle was Orestes Brownson, a Catholic activist and
[8]
intellectual. On his mother's side, he was a descendant of James Kilbourne, a colonel in the U.S.

Army who led a regiment on the American frontier in the War of 1812, founded the city of
[9]
Worthington, Ohio, and became a United States Representative from Ohio.

On his father's side, Richards's lineage included combatants in the American Revolutionary War,
such as William Richards (his great-grandfather), who led a contingent of troops that took part in the
[10]
siege at the Battle of Fort Slongo and who later fought in the Battle of Bunker Hill as a colonel.

Through William Richards, he traced his ancestry to James Richards, who was documented in 1634
[2]
as residing on the Eel River in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

Education

Richards as a young Jesuit

[11]
Richards's father sought to send all his children to Catholic schools but was at times unable to.
[2]
Therefore, Richards attended both Catholic and public schools in Jersey City. At the age of
fourteen, he quit school and took up work as a bookkeeper for his father. Four years later, the two of
[5]
them moved to Boston, Massachusetts, where they worked in the steel industry.

In September 1869 Richards enrolled at Boston College. The rest of his family joined him and his
father in Boston in July of that year. Richards remained at the college for three years, where he was
[5]
active in school sports, before entering the Society of Jesus and proceeding to the novitiate in
[12]
Frederick, Maryland, on August 7, 1872. Upon entering the order, he changed his name to
[3]
Joseph Havens Richards.

At the end of his probationary period, Richards was sent to Woodstock College in 1874, where he
[5]
studied philosophy for four years. He then went to Georgetown University as a professor of
[12] [5]
physics and mathematics, doing work in chemistry during his vacations. In the summers of
[13]
1879 and 1880, he was sent by the Jesuit provincial superior to study at Harvard University. In

July 1883, he returned to Woodstock for four years of theological studies. The provincial superior
[12]
made an exception for Richards to be ordained after only two years because his father was ill.

Therefore, on August 29, 1885, he was ordained a priest by James Gibbons, the Archbishop of
[5]
Baltimore, in the college's chapel. He completed his theological studies in 1887 and returned to
[12]
Frederick to complete his tertianship.

Georgetown University
Immediately after the completion of his Jesuit formation, Richards was made the rector and
[14]
president of Georgetown University, taking office on August 15, 1888, and succeeding James A.
[15]
Doonan. He had a plan to transform Georgetown into a modern, comprehensive institution that
[16]
would be the leading university of both the Catholic Church and the United States. This role
[17]
would be amplified by the fact that the university was located in the nation's capital.

Curriculum improvements
Though Richards sought to dispel the perception that Jesuit schools were of inferior quality than their
secular counterparts, he maintained that the curriculum of the Ratio Studiorum should be
 [18]
preserved. Therefore, he revitalized the graduate programs of the university, introduced new

courses in the law school, and oversaw construction of a new law building in 1892. He also sought to
[19]
establish an electrical, chemical, and civil engineering program, but this did not come to fruition.

For the first time, graduates of the university were authorized to wear a hood as part of their
[20]
academic regalia. Richards sought to induce prominent scholars to join the faculty of

Georgetown; he recruited the Austrian astronomer Johann Georg Hagen and several distinguished
[17]
scientists from the Smithsonian Institution.

Richards at Healy Hall

Graduate courses in the arts and sciences were re-established in 1889, and courses in theology and
philosophy returned to the university, which had previously been moved to Boston and then to
[19]
Woodstock College. Richards criticized the decision to relocate the theological training of Jesuits

from Georgetown to the "semi-wilderness" of Woodstock, which was "remote from libraries, from
contact with the learned world, and from all the stimulating influences which affect intellectual
[21]
life".

Richards expanded the School of Medicine by establishing a chair and laboratory of bacteriology;
increasing the number of instructors in anatomy, physiology, and surgery; and improving the
[19]
chemistry curriculum. He also standardized the curriculum and increased its duration from three
 [17]
to four years. The property of the medical school, which theretofore had been owned by its own

legal corporation, was transferred to the President and Directors of Georgetown College, giving
[19]
Richards authority over the appointment of professors. Richards also desired to have a hospital

adjoined to the medical school, but there was initially little interest in this among faculty and
[22]
donors. Eventually, Georgetown University Hospital was completed in 1898, and it was put under
[23]
the care of the Sisters of Saint Francis.

Richards worked with Bishop John Keane to address tensions with the newly established Catholic
[24]
University of America, which was located in the same city and run by the American bishops.
[24]
Many feared that it would interfere with Georgetown University, and it did indeed seek to take

control of Georgetown's law and medical schools as its own. This proposal was approved by the
Jesuit superior general, Luis Martín, who feared that the Vatican might suppress Georgetown
altogether if it did not acquiesce. The faculties of the law and medical schools publicly protested the
[25]
proposal, and Catholic University dropped its plans. Eventually, an agreement was reached that
[24]
Catholic University would focus exclusively on the graduate education of secular priests.

Construction

Dahlgren Chapel (photo c. 1904)

Richards's most immediate task upon taking office was the completion of Healy Hall, construction of
which began in 1877 under a predecessor, Patrick F. Healy, but whose interior remained unfinished.
Richards was able to have the bulk of the work completed by February 20, 1889, the date on which
[26]
the university began its three-day centenary celebration. Within Healy Hall, he made
 [27] [28]
improvements to Gaston Hall and oversaw the start of work on Riggs Library. Richards

improved the university's astronomical observatory, placing Hagen in charge of it, which raised the
[27]
stature of the university in scientific circles.

In 1892 Richards received a donation from the socialite Elizabeth Wharton Drexel for the
construction of Dahlgren Chapel of the Sacred Heart. That year, he also procured the library of
historian John Gilmary Shea, which extensively documented the history of the Catholic Church in the
[22] [29]
United States. Richards's presidency came to an end on July 3, 1898, by which time he had
[30] [15]
experienced worsening health for two years. He was succeeded by John D. Whitney.

Anti-Catholicism in the Ivy League

Richards also took up the cause of fighting discrimination against Catholics by prominent Protestant
universities, especially those of the Ivy League. In 1893, James Jeffrey Roche, the editor of the
Catholic Boston newspaper The Pilot, wrote to Charles William Eliot, the president of Harvard
University, about the fact that no Catholic universities were included on the list of institutions whose
[31]
graduates were automatically eligible for admission to Harvard Law School. Eliot's response,

which was published in The Pilot, was that the quality of education at Catholic universities was
inferior to that offered at their Protestant counterparts. Richards and other Catholic educators had
[13]
long believed that anti-Catholic discrimination had been at work at Protestant colleges.

Richards sought a retraction from Eliot, writing to him that graduates of reputable Catholic colleges
were better prepared to study law than any other college graduates, and he included information on
Georgetown's curriculum. Eliot responded by adding Georgetown, the College of the Holy Cross,
and Boston College to the list. Upon the provincial superior's instruction, Richards then
[13]
unsuccessfully lobbied to have all 24 Jesuit colleges in the United States added to the list.

Pastoral work
 Richards in 1890

Following his retirement from the presidency, Richards became the spiritual father of the novitiate in
[30]
Frederick. He remained interested in Georgetown's astronomical observatory, and he petitioned
[19]
to have a station established in South Africa so that the entire sky could be studied. The following

year, he became the spiritual father of Boston College, where he established the Boston Alumni
Sodality. When not in Boston, he spent time in Philadelphia and Brooklyn, where he worked with the
New York Sodality. He also began cataloguing Catholic works in the New York Public Library, but his
health soon prevented him from continuing. Upon the recommendation that it would benefit his
health, Richards moved to the novitiate in Los Gatos, California, in March 1900, but he was there
[32]
only briefly before visiting his family in Boston after his mother's death.

Richards returned to Los Gatos in April. In early 1901, he moved back to Frederick, Maryland, where
[33]
he became minister of the novitiate. Richards then went to St. Andrew-on-Hudson in Hyde Park,

New York, as minister in January 1903, when the novitiate relocated there. Several months later, he
[34]
was made the procurator and was placed in charge of the mission in Pleasant Valley. He

transferred again to Boston College in 1906 as spiritual father, remaining there for a year. From 1907
[35]
to July 1909, he was prefect of the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola at Boston College.
 [b]
Richards then proceeded to the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola in New York City as operarius. After

four years, he was sent to Canisius College in Buffalo as minister and prefect of studies. He ceased
[35]
to be minister in July 1914 but remained as prefect. He was appointed the rector and president of
[35]
both Regis High School and the Loyola School in New York the following year, succeeding David
[37][38] [39]
W. Hearn. Concurrently, he became the pastor of the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola. Being
[40]
advanced in age, he retired from the position on March 25, 1919, and was succeeded by James
[37][38]
J. Kilroy as pastor and as president of Regis and Loyola.

Later years
Following his positions in New York, Richards was made superior of Manresa Island in Norwalk,
Connecticut, where he received Jesuit scholastics and priests from the Diocese of Hartford during
the summer for their retreats. During the rest of the year, he lived on the island with just one other
Jesuit. In December 1921, he was transferred to Weston College as spiritual father and procurator,
[41]
ceasing to hold the latter role in September 1922.

On March 2, 1923, Richards suffered a stroke, which left his speech impaired and the right side of
his body paralyzed. He spent seven weeks in the hospital before going to the College of the Holy
[41]
Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. He suffered another stroke on June 8 and died the following
[42]
day.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Joseph Havens Richards.

Notes and references

[2]
● ^ Henry Livingston Richards's name was sometimes spelled as Livingstone.
[36]
● ^ An operarius is a Jesuit who works as a priest away from his Jesuit community.

Citations
● ^
● Jump up to:
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● Obituary: Father Joseph Havens Richards, S.J. 1924, p. 248
● ^
● Jump up to:
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● Johnson & Brown 1904, "Richards"
● ^
● Jump up to:
ab
● Worthington Genealogies 1903, p. 184
● ^
● Jump up to:
ab
● Richards 1913, pp. 239–40
● ^
● Jump up to:
abcdef
● Shea 1891, p. 310
● ^ Richards 1913, p. 258
● ^ Worthington Genealogies 1903, p. 182–184
● ^ Richards, William (December 1, 1891). "RE: Orestes A. Brownson". Letter to Henry F.
Brownson. Washington, D.C. Archived from the original on October 2, 2015. Retrieved
December 30, 2018.
● ^ "Kilbourne, James, (1770–1850)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved December 31, 2018.
● ^ Rhees 1896, p. 155
● ^ Obituary: Father Joseph Havens Richards, S.J. 1924, p. 249
● ^
● Jump up to:
abcd
● Obituary: Father Joseph Havens Richards, S.J. 1924, p. 250
● ^
● Jump up to:
abc
● Mahoney 2004, p. 37
● ^ Obituary: Father Joseph Havens Richards, S.J. 1924, pp. 250–251
● ^
● Jump up to:
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● Curran 2010, p. 397
● ^ Curran 2012, p. 274
● ^
● Jump up to:
abc
● Curran 2012, p. 275
● ^ Bender, p. 10
● ^
● Jump up to:
abcde
● Obituary: Father Joseph Havens Richards, S.J. 1924, p. 253
● ^ Richards, J. Havens (June 16, 1896). "Letter from the Rector". Letter to the public.
Georgetown University. Retrieved December 31, 2018 – via Internet Archive.
● ^ McFadden 1990, p. 164
● ^
● Jump up to:
ab
● Obituary: Father Joseph Havens Richards, S.J. 1924, p. 254
● ^ Obituary: Father Joseph Havens Richards, S.J. 1924, p. 255
● ^
● Jump up to:
 abc
● Obituary: Father Joseph Havens Richards, S.J. 1924, pp. 255–256
● ^ Curran 2012, p. 279
● ^ Obituary: Father Joseph Havens Richards, S.J. 1924, p. 251
● ^
● Jump up to:
ab
● Obituary: Father Joseph Havens Richards, S.J. 1924, p. 252
● ^ Easby-Smith 1907, p. 161
● ^ Obituary: Father Joseph Havens Richards, S.J. 1924, p. 260
● ^
● Jump up to:
ab
● Obituary: Father Joseph Havens Richards, S.J. 1924, p. 262
● ^ Mahoney 2004, p. 36
● ^ Obituary: Father Joseph Havens Richards, S.J. 1924, p. 263
● ^ Obituary: Father Joseph Havens Richards, S.J. 1924, p. 264
● ^ Obituary: Father Joseph Havens Richards, S.J. 1924, p. 265
● ^
● Jump up to:
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● Obituary: Father Joseph Havens Richards, S.J. 1924, p. 266
● ^ Gramatowski 2013, p. 20
● ^
● Jump up to:
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● "Presidents of Regis". Regis High School. Archived from the original on July 31, 2016.
Retrieved February 26, 2020.
● ^
● Jump up to:
ab
● "Presidents of Loyola School". Loyola School. Archived from the original on December 30,
2018. Retrieved December 30, 2018.
● ^ Andreassi 2014, p. 92
● ^ Obituary: Father Joseph Havens Richards, S.J. 1924, p. 267
● ^
● Jump up to:
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● Obituary: Father Joseph Havens Richards, S.J. 1924, p. 268
● ^ Obituary: Father Joseph Havens Richards, S.J. 1924, pp. 268–269

Sources
● Andreassi, Anthony (2014). Teach Me to Be Generous: The First Century of Regis High School in New
York City. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8232-5636-5. Archived from the original on February
26, 2020. Retrieved February 25, 2020 – via Google Books.
● Bender, Arthur C. A Brief History of the New York Province (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on
November 19, 2018. Retrieved December 29, 2018.
● Curran, Robert Emmett (2010). A History of Georgetown University: The Quest for Excellence,
1889–1964. Vol. 2. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press. ISBN 978-1-58901-690-3.
● Curran, Robert Emmett (2012). Shaping American Catholicism: Maryland and New York, 1805-1915.
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● Easby-Smith, James Stanislaus (1907). Georgetown University in the District of Columbia, 1789–1907:
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Archives.
● Rhees, William J. (1896). Register of the District of Columbia Society of the American Revolution,
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