President: 1817, 1822-1825
Fr. Benedict Fenwick, S.J., served as Georgetown's tenth and 13th president in 1817 and again from 1822-1825.
Early academic and Jesuit career
Benedict Fenwick was born in St. Mary’s County, Maryland in 1782. In 1792, Fenwick and his older brother, Enoch, enrolled at Georgetown where they became good friends with fellow student William Gaston. Fenwick graduated with the highest honors and became a professor at Georgetown remaining until 1805. Fenwick then entered St. Mary’s Seminary run by the Sulpicians in Baltimore. After Pope Pius VII restored the Society of Jesus in 1806, Fr. Fenwick returned to Georgetown and joined the Jesuit novitiate where he was ordained by Fr. Leonard Neale in 1808. The following year, Fr. Fenwick traveled with Fr. Anthony Kohlmann to New York where they formed the New York Literary Institution.1
First presidency
In the spring of 1817, Fr. Fenwick was appointed Georgetown’s tenth president, succeeding Fr. John Grassi. Although this term lasted only a year, Archbishop Carroll’s biographer remembered, “the college never flourished more than when it was under his direction, for no nomination of a presiding officer could have been more popular…the pleasing reminiscences of his former abode in college had been kept alive and handed down by the admiring youth who before frequented his school; while his sincerity and urbane deportment, in which the polish of the gentleman was perfected by the probity of the Christian, entirely gained the good graces and the confidence of their parents.”2
Fr. Fenwick oversaw the 1817 Commencement, the first where degrees were conferred. Later that year, Fr. Fenwick was sent to Charleston, South Carolina, and Fr. Anthony Kohlmann filled the position of Georgetown’s president.
Second presidency
In 1822, Fr. Fenwick returned to Georgetown, and on September 15, he was re-appointed to the position of president, filling the vacancy left by his brother Enoch.3 Little is recorded about Fr. Fenwick’s second term as president. He soon left for the position of Bishop of Boston, and he was succeeded in 1825 by Fr. Stephen Dubuisson.
