By Dr. Raymond Hebert
Thomas More University
Part 23 of our series “Retrospect and Vista II”: Thomas More College/University, 1971-2021
In her Retrospect and Vista: The First Fifty Years of Thomas More College — Formerly Villa Madonna College 1921-1971, Sister Irmina Saelinger, OSB, singled out three academic departments for special recognition in the year when the new Science Building was dedicated on the Crestview Hills campus (1971): Biology, through the “Biological Station”; “the Chemistry Department, with its New Undergraduate Approach”; and Physics because of its National Science Programs. She pointed out, for example, how the Physics Department “has established strong research facilities in magnetic resonance, recoilless nuclear absorption and magnetic susceptibilities,” all supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF) back to 1962 (Retrospect and Vista, p. 78).
Sister Eleanor Fox, professor of Physics. (Thomas More University Archives)
In 1968, the American Institute of Physics recognized the college as “one of the most successful [Physics] programs in the country” (Retrospect and Vista, p. 78 and TMU Archives). By 1971, for example, 1) NSF had invested $70,000 (as of October 2021, its worth would be equal to $486,463) into the College’s Physics Program “for training physicists”; 2) By 1971, the Undergraduate Research Participation was in its eighth summer of funded operations; 3) a separate May 1970 Instruction Scientific Equipment grant of $9,000 ($64,490 today) supported half the cost (with a VMC match) for upgrading the Advanced Laboratory and Independent Research equipment; 4) According to Kentucky’s Department of Education, the Department of Physics ranked third in the state of Kentucky in the number of Physics majors who had graduated between 1966 and 1971.
Most impressive of all the accolades, however, was the high level of achievement towards graduate and professional degrees, with more Thomas More graduates pursuing doctorates after graduation rather than simply master’s degrees. Between 1961 and 1971, 44% of all physics graduates of Villa Madonna/Thomas More College later “obtained the doctorate in Physics” (Retrospect and Vista, p. 78; and TMU Archives).
At one of the Physics Reunions in the 1980s, I recall being told by a faculty member that a Kentucky Department of Education official had shared with him that between 1961 and 1971, there were more PhDs in Physics among our graduates than at any other Kentucky postsecondary institutions, including the state’s flagship universities, UK and UofL (BioOne Complete Database, “Kentucky Baccalaureate Origins of Doctorate Recipients in the Biological Sciences, Chemistry, and Physics, 1978 through 2002.”
Msgr. John F. Schuler, professor of Physics and founding chairman of the Physics Department. (Thomas More University Archives)
In addition, according to the Physics Department files for those same years (1961-1971), the faculty participated in major recruitment efforts so as to continue to bring in talented high school students: 1) they offered an eight-week program on Saturday mornings for high school seniors with “a five year average (attendance) over 35: between 1966 and 1971”; 2) as a way of helping high school physics teachers, the faculty offered a one-day conference on “Harvard Project Physics,” a new highly acclaimed approach for teaching high school physics, in the summer of 1971 with “46 participants from a 150-mile radius” (Files in Physics Department, Thomas More College -1971).
Two faculty members were especially responsible for the high caliber of the Physics program. The first was the Department founder, Monsignor John F. Schuler. He was the founding chair and a longtime faculty member from 1949 until the 1960s (Chair 1949-1963). Sadly, he died on February 23, 1970, at only 62 years of age. Second, Sister Mary Eleanor Fox, SND, was a member of the VMC/TMC faculty for most of the period, 1946—1976, during which she completed her PhD at the University of Cincinnati. She followed Monsignor Schuler as the Chair of the department in the 1960s and became a Full Professor in 1967. She was the lead faculty member for most of the Natural Science Foundation grants described above.
We must continue our story, however, with Monsignor John F. Schuler, the founding chairman of the Physics Department. In 1946, Father Schuler had been selected to participate in the “U.S. tests of the atomic bomb as a staff member of the radiological section of Joint Task Force One which conducted tests from May through September at the Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands” (See Obituary, Monsignor John F. Schuler – “College and Profession mourns loss of Msgr. John F. Schuler,” TMU Archives). He then began teaching at Villa Madonna College in 1949.
Msgr. John F. Schuler and Sister Eleanor Fox. (Thomas More University Archives)
Schuler was credited as instrumental in creating “the strong Physics program at VMC, called one of the five best programs among the nation’s small colleges by the leading journal Physics Today” (Ibid.). His obituary added that he had served as department chair from 1949—1963 and taught over 200 graduates of the Physics program during those years. It is significant to note how respected he was in the field nationally as well, as can be seen in the eloquent words written by Dr. Leonard A. Mann, SM, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Dayton (UD).
Mann concluded: “The level to which he [Fr. Schuler] raised his department on the national scene was a goal that we are still seeking at UD— and we have a faculty four times as large and facilities much more extensive than his,” adding that “Professor Schuler achieved what so very many others with much more at their disposal could not” (Obituary, TMU Archives). While at the University of Cincinnati, completing both his Master’s and PhD degrees, Father Schuler had built a spectrometer, “a device that determined the various properties of matter,” which was then used for his research (and multiple publications) and the students at the college from 1949-1963 (Obituary, TMU Archives).
Later in February (2/25/1970), after Msgr. Schuler’s death, the Reverend Charles Rooks, the Academic Dean at Thomas More College, brought forward a resolution, adopted unanimously by the TMC faculty. It recognized Monsignor Schuler as an esteemed member of the faculty for twenty-one (21) years, for “his devotion to Christ and his Church” and for “scholarship and teaching that contributed invaluably to the growth of this academic community.” The resolution closed by “thanking God for having given us Monsignor John Schuler as a colleague” (Faculty Resolution, Faculty General Assembly, February 25, 1970, TMU Archives).
Sr. Eleanor Fox with students during class. (Thomas More University Archives)
On the same day, Covington Bishop Richard Ackerman’s personal remembrance spoke of Monsignor Schuler as an outstanding scholar, a scientist, and teacher who “was able to share his knowledge, with remarkable skill; who was a gentleman in the best sense of the term; acceptable to those of his generation as well as to the young. He was a philosopher in the sense that he was a lover of wisdom… [and] above all he will be remembered and recalled as priest… he loved his priesthood… the Church of Covington is diminished in his death. In the annals of an already venerable Diocese, the name of Monsignor John Schuler shall be enshrined in grateful, endearing memory” (Bishop Richard H. Ackerman’s Personal Remembrance, Friday, February 27, 1970, Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption of Covington, Kentucky, TMU Archives).
Sister Mary Eleanor, SND, meanwhile, was finishing her PhD at the University of Cincinnati in the early 1960s and assumed the chairmanship of the Physics department in 1963. It is worth noting, when reading the files from the Provincial House of the Sisters of Notre Dame that, in addition to her BA from Villa Madonna College in 1942, she also completed an MS at the Catholic University of America (with 59 credit hours) and during several summers, 1947-1953, also earned other undergraduate and graduate credits from Fordham University, Xavier University, and the University of Notre Dame. She was published in the Journal of Chemical Physics, wrote a number of reviews for Choice, delivered papers at academic meetings, and, as noted earlier, picked up where Monsignor Schuler left off with the bulk of the successful National Science Foundation grants.
Msgr. John F. Schuler with students during class. (Thomas More University Archives)
Examples of this success were reported by The Kentucky Post on February 7, 1971, in an article entitled “Third Physics Grant to TMC.” In a quoted announcement from Sr. M. Eleanor herself, that grant was singled out as the third National Science Foundation Grant (NSF) to be received in less than a month. This latest one was for $5,200 ($36,047 today) to “provide a summer of undergraduate research for three high ability physics students who have completed their junior year at Thomas More College.” The first two NSF grants that month were: 1) $10,918 ($75,684 today) under a student Training Program for 20 high ability high school students from the Greater Cincinnati area and 2) $27,039 ($187,436 today) under the Cooperative College-School Science Program for 30 ninth-grade science teachers of physical science from school districts in Northern Kentucky (Kentucky Post, February 7,1971, p. 11A). Not surprisingly, such programs helped high school teachers and students, bringing recognition to and interest in the Physics program at Thomas More College for a number of years to come.
Eventually, Sister Eleanor was able to move to part-time status in the mid-1970’s, which allowed her to give more of her time to her duties with the Motherhouse of the Sisters of Notre Dame in Park Hills. Whether fulltime or part-time, though, Sister Eleanor was always appreciated and recognized as an excellent teacher. One of her evaluations by the Academic Dean (Sr. M. Laurence Budde, SND) in the early 1980s stated of her: “Sister Mary Eleanor Fox, SND, is an excellent teacher. She is vibrant and dynamic in the classroom, thorough and reasonably challenging. Her students and peers greatly appreciated her knowledge and her manner of getting the subject across to the students. Her concern for the students is shown both in and outside of the classroom, and she does this in a genuine spirit of warmth and forthrightness” (Academic Dean’s Evaluative Statement for Sister M. Eleanor Fox, SND, 1984).
Dr. Joseph Lang (Thomas More University Archives)
The chair of the Physics department in the early 1980’s was Dr. Joseph E. Lang. He expanded on the value of Sister Eleanor best when, in thanking her for having taught an Advanced Calculus for Scientists and Vibrations and Waves class in the spring of 1980, he shared the compliments from the students on the “excellence of your instruction” and added that “if the truth is to come out, let me tell you that we wish you would come back full-time. We miss you very much!!” (Joseph E. Lang letter to Sr. M. Eleanor Fox, SND, May 30, 1980, TMU Archives).
While looking back to that special time, it is with pride in the tradition of Monsignor John Schuler and Sister Eleanor Fox that Thomas More University commends all of the faculty in Physics and Math. Since those early years, they have continued to maintain the department as one of the strongest at Thomas More University.
Dr. Raymond G. Hebert is a Professor of History and Executive Director of the William T. Robinson III Institute for Religious Liberty at Thomas More University. He has just completed his 46th year at Thomas More and, with that background, will now serve as the General Editor of the official history of Thomas More College/University from 1971-2021. With a projected title of RETROSPECT AND VISTA II, it will serve as the sequel to Sr. Irmina Saelinger’s RETROSPECT AND VISTA, the history of the first 50 years of Thomas More College (formerly Villa Madonna College). He can be contacted at hebertr@thomasmore.edu.
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