Fr. Dan Riley to receive award
Kristy Kibler
Issue date: 5/1/09 Section: News
"The big thing for me is that (students) are there so the university's friends and the larger university community can experience how wonderful the students are," he said. "That's what's important to me - you guys are a blessing to us. What could be better than for people to meet a Bonaventure student and say 'Oh wow, that's who's at Bona's now? What a great place!'"
The money raised by the Gaudete event will go toward the Annual Fund, which funds university operating expenses and several scholarships, Sinsabaugh wrote.
A committee of more than 30 alumni and friends of the university coordinated this year's Gaudete event and selected the winner. Ann McCarthy, '74, a committee member, wrote Father Dan was an obvious choice.
"Father Dan always, always puts the needs of others before his own - his gift is in making each person feel that they are singularly important," McCarthy wrote in an e-mail. "People are just drawn to him. He is a deeply spiritual man and is simply a blessing to us all - caring for us, wanting us to be happy and encouraging us in our faith."
Brother Ed Coughlin, O.F.M., vice president for Franciscan Mission, agreed.
"He's an outstanding friar who has been incredibly generous on this campus for an incredible number of years," he said. "I think it's wonderful the university is willing to recognize that and wanted to celebrate that."
Father Dan's contributions have enriched Bonaventure for decades. Ordained a priest in 1971, he returned to St. Bonaventure the same year to start up campus ministry, a new field at the time.
McCarthy said Father Dan acted as a catalyst for what would become the Thomas Merton Center.
"I have known Father Dan since I, myself, was a student at St. Bonaventure in the early '70s," she wrote. "Even then, Father Dan was a dreamer, and he had a dream that a building in the center of campus - then used for maintenance and storage - could become what is today the Campus Ministry Center.
The money raised by the Gaudete event will go toward the Annual Fund, which funds university operating expenses and several scholarships, Sinsabaugh wrote.
A committee of more than 30 alumni and friends of the university coordinated this year's Gaudete event and selected the winner. Ann McCarthy, '74, a committee member, wrote Father Dan was an obvious choice.
"Father Dan always, always puts the needs of others before his own - his gift is in making each person feel that they are singularly important," McCarthy wrote in an e-mail. "People are just drawn to him. He is a deeply spiritual man and is simply a blessing to us all - caring for us, wanting us to be happy and encouraging us in our faith."
Brother Ed Coughlin, O.F.M., vice president for Franciscan Mission, agreed.
"He's an outstanding friar who has been incredibly generous on this campus for an incredible number of years," he said. "I think it's wonderful the university is willing to recognize that and wanted to celebrate that."
Father Dan's contributions have enriched Bonaventure for decades. Ordained a priest in 1971, he returned to St. Bonaventure the same year to start up campus ministry, a new field at the time.
McCarthy said Father Dan acted as a catalyst for what would become the Thomas Merton Center.
"I have known Father Dan since I, myself, was a student at St. Bonaventure in the early '70s," she wrote. "Even then, Father Dan was a dreamer, and he had a dream that a building in the center of campus - then used for maintenance and storage - could become what is today the Campus Ministry Center.
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