President: 1851-1852
Fr. Charles Stonestreet, S.J., served as Georgetown's 24th president from 1851-1852. Fr. Stonestreet's brief presidency was fairly uneventful, but he was liked and respected by both students and faculty.
Early Jesuit and academic career
Charles Stonestreet studied first at a classical school in St. Mary’s County before graduating with honors from Georgetown in 1833. That August, he entered the Society of Jesus. Upon completing his novitiate, Fr. Stonestreet returned to Georgetown where he taught French, mathematics, and grammar and served as a prefect. He then completed his study of theology and was ordained on July 4, 1843.1 Fr. Stonestreet worked first on a mission to Alexandria, Virginia before serving as president of St. John’s Literary Institution at Frederick. On August 1, 1851, Fr. Stonestreet became Georgetown’s twenty-fourth president, succeeding Fr. James Ryder.2
Presidency
When the academic year began a few weeks later, 176 students arrived at Georgetown with the Georgetown Cadets numbering forty, the Philodemics thirty-six, and the Reading Room Association forty-two. The fall semester passed quietly, but the spring brought frequent visits by several Church dignitaries who had traveled for the first plenary council in Baltimore. 3At the 1852 Commencement, Fr. Stonestreet oversaw the graduation of Georgetown's first class from the new medical department and awarded the degree of Doctor of Medicine to four students.4
Overall, the students liked Fr. Stonestreet whose lax and genial ways were a sharp contrast to his predecessor Fr. Ryder. Fr. Stonestreet led with a gentle but caring hand. He spent one address warning students to care for their teeth in order to protect their future careers as public servants, "Decayed teeth like a decayed body may be inherited, yet it frequently happens that both are the effect of neglect and imprudence. You should pay particular attention to the former for. . .their absence, particularly of the front ones, may render your pronunciation inarticulate. Such a defect would be a serious calamity to such of you young gentlemen as Providence may mark out for public speakers."5 The faculty and Fr. Stonestreet’s superiors were also pleased with the new president. At the end of his first year, the Jesuit provincial reported to the superior general that “in every respect Georgetown College is flourishing.”6
Unfortunately, Fr. Stonestreet’s first year as Georgetown’s president was also his last. In the summer of 1852, Fr. Stonestreet was appointed provincial superior of the Maryland Province after the former provincial superior passed away unexpectedly. Fr. Stonestreet resigned the Georgetown presidency, and he was succeeded by Fr. Bernard Maguire.7
- 1“Father Charles H. Stonestreet.” Woodstock Letters, Vol. XIV, No. 1, 1885, pp. 400-01.
- 2Gilmary Shea, John. “Memorial of the First Century of Georgetown College, D.C.” 1891, p. 172.
- 3Easby-Smith, James. “Georgetown University in the District of Columbia, 1789-1907, Its Founders, Benefactors, Officers, Instructors and Alumni.” Vol. 1, 190, p.94.
- 4 “Memorial of the First Century of Georgetown College, D.C.,” p. 176.
- 5Georgetown University (Washington, DC), Ye Domesday Booke, 1981, p. 10.
- 6Emmett Curran, Robert. “The Bicentennial History of Georgetown University: From Academy to University, 1789–1889.” 1993, p. 157.
- 7Id. at p. 158.
