William L. Keleher, SJ was born in Woburn, Massachusetts, on January 27, 1906. He attended Boston College High School and graduated from Holy Cross College in 1926. Following his graduation, Keleher entered the Jesuit order at Shadowbrook Seminary in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. In 1932, he was appointed a teaching fellow in Chemistry at the College of the Holy Cross and received his Masters the following spring. He completed his theological training at the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry in Weston, Massachusetts, and was ordained in 1937.

Keleher served for three years as assistant to the Provincial of the New England Province of Jesuits and as master of novices for the novitiate at Shadowbrook before becoming president of Boston College in 1945. Keleher presided over the College’s rapid expansion in the years immediately following World War II, including the influx of thousands of veterans returning from service. To accommodate the growing student body, Keleher launched a $1 million capital fund campaign in the spring of 1946 to pay for the construction of a new building for the College of Business Administration, Fulton Hall. Keleher also oversaw the founding of the School of Nursing in 1947, and the development of the School of Education, which opened soon after his presidency.

During his tenure, Keleher was involved in an incident that became known as the Boston Heresy Case, or the Father Feeney Controversy. In 1949, then-Jesuit priest Leonard Feeney began to preach a strict interpretation of extra ecclesiam nulla salus, a doctrine not held by the modern Church, which states that salvation is only achieved through baptism in the Roman Catholic Church. Keleher became a target of Feeney’s criticism when three professors from Boston College and one teacher from Boston College High School, all adherents of Feeney’s interpretation, were dismissed from their posts for teaching what Keleher considered “contrary to the traditional teachings of the Catholic Church and ideas leading to bigotry and hatred.”

Following his term as president, Keleher returned to the College of the Holy Cross serving as a professor, administrator, and trustee. He was also a noted retreat master. Following an extended illness, Keleher died at Saint Elizabeth’s Hospital, in Brighton, Massachusetts in 1975. His funeral mass was celebrated at St. Ignatius’ Parish, and he was buried at the Campion Center in Weston.

Sources:

Dunigan, David R. A History of Boston College. Milwaukee, WI: Bruce Publishing Co., 1947.

Obituary clipping, Box 2, Folder 15, William L. Keleher, SJ, President’s Office Records, BC.2002.016, John J. Burns Library, Boston College.