President: 1840
Fr. Joseph Lopez, S.J., served as Georgetown's 19th president in 1840. Fr. Lopez was the first Mexican president of an American university.
Early Jesuit career
When the family of Agustín de Iturbide, former Emperor of Mexico, fled Mexico following his execution in 1824, Fr. Joseph A. Lopez accompanied them first to New Orleans and then Georgetown. He helped enroll Madame Iturbide’s daughters at the Visitation Academy, and he was received as a priest of the Baltimore diocese. Fr. Lopez soon became a chaplain for Visitation Academy, but he sought entrance and received acceptance into the Society of Jesus in December 1833.1
At the time of Fr. McSherry’s death on December 18, 1839, Fr. Lopez was serving as a minister at Georgetown. On December 31, Fr. Lopez was appointed Fr. McSherry’s temporary successor.
Presidency
Fr. Lopez led Georgetown for only a few short months. During his tenure, the Philonomosian Society replaced the former Phileleutherian Society. Founded in January 8, 1939 the Philonomosian Society’s mission was “to cultivate and improve all those mental faculties which a beneficent Creator has bestowed upon his favorite creature, Man.” Members were required to enroll in the Grammar classes and donate two historical or other volumes to the library.
Fr. Lopez was a pious and strict president, and the Georgetown community felt the severity of his discipline. One such example of his strict demeanor is found in the story of one of the lay brothers who was responsible for giving the spiritual reading for his fellow brothers. He apparently became so absorbed in a ball game among the students that he forgot his duty. When he remembered, he ran to the room where the brothers met only to find Fr. Lopez giving the reading in his stead. The look Fr. Lopez gave the lay brother was “in itself the severest of reprimands.”2
On April 30, 1840, Fr. Lopez’s temporary term ended, and he was succeeded by Fr. James Ryder.
