Lawrence M. O'Shaughnessy, Humanist

On December 3, the Center for Irish Studies, the University of St. Thomas that is its home, and indeed, the Irish American community as a whole, lost a remarkable friend when Lawrence M. O'Shaughnessy—always known to us as Larry—died in St. Paul at the age of ninety-six. We extend our deepest sympathies to his widow Bonnie, to his five surviving children, to his extended family, and to his many friends.

Born in St. Paul in 1921, Larry was the last surviving child of Ignatius Aloysius O'Shaughnessy, a legendary philanthropist; in addition to his benefactions to higher education, Larry's father was one of the donors who purchased what is now Killarney National Park and presented it to the Irish state to keep it from development. Larry continued that tradition of philanthropy, both in his own giving and in his stewardship of the O'Shaughnessy Family Foundation, for which he served as president from 1981 to 2004.

Larry graduated from St. Thomas Academy, then located on our campus, and attended what was then the College of St. Thomas for two years before transferring to Yale University, where he earned a bachelor of arts degree in 1944. For a time, he pursued graduate studies in English at the University of Minnesota, with a particular interest in literary aesthetics. He returned to St. Thomas in 1948 and taught English for two years.

Much of his prominence in Irish circles came through his early support of the Irish American Cultural Institute (founded by Eoin McKiernan in 1962 and located on the St. Thomas campus for three decades), from which the Center for Irish Studies descends. Larry and Eoin became close friends through O'Shaughnessy's service on the institute's board and, for a few years, as associate editor of Éire-Ireland, the first American journal of Irish Studies. He was an active associate editor, even taking on the drudge work of reading page proofs. McKiernan had a deep trust in Larry and a profound admiration for his commitment to the life of the mind. It is a warming thought to think of these two busy men getting together to read Irish poetry, as they did regularly. And for a time,

McKiernan even tried to tutor Larry in the Irish language, though Larry was the first to admit he made almost no progress. In the 1960s Sen. Eugene McCarthy put forward O'Shaughnessy's name to become ambassador to Ireland—though Larry declined the position because his wife was ill at the time.

Father Dennis Dease, president of St. Thomas from 1991 to 2013, said that in addition to philanthropy, he always will remember O'Shaughnessy as "a poet and an Irish gentleman." "At family gatherings," Dease recalled, "Larry would go on reciting Irish poetry until the wee hours. He always saw himself as a teacher; that was his calling."

When in 1996, Larry redirected his giving to Irish projects to our newly founded Center, he was insistent that the programs include the continued publication of a journal of Irish Studies and support for Irish poetry, in the form of the annual award that bears his name. Larry met all of the visiting poets over the past twenty-one years, taking time to acquaint himself with their work in advance. Well into his nineties, Larry still attended the public readings that concluded each poets' visit, following along with their books open on his lap. Today, a subset of the university's 9,000-volume Celtic Collection is the Lawrence O'Shaughnessy Collection of Irish Poetry.

Many of the past honorees sent condolences to the O'Shaughnessy family. Theo Dorgan, who received the award in in 2010, said, "Larry O'Shaughnessy had the gentleman's instincts that only a convinced and genuine democrat can exhibit." Dorgan continued,

He was, as anyone who had the privilege of meeting him saw at once, a true and noble soul. When he founded the O'Shaughnessy Award, he did so from a profound sense of service: he...