College Honors Anne Forsyth, Jon Daly, and Peter DeLuca

Each year the president of Thomas Aquinas College hosts a dinner on the Wednesday before Commencement as an opportunity for members of the faculty and staff to bid farewell to the graduating class. The event also serves as an occasion to thank employees who have achieved landmark anniversaries in their service of the College or who are retiring. This year, the College honored Director of Special Projects Anne Forsyth, Admissions Director Jon Daly, and Peter L. DeLuca, a co-founder, former president, and senior tutor.

Anne S. Forsyth (’81)

Remarks by Dr. McLean

Anne has served for 20 years in the capacity as assistant to the president; she served 17 of those years as well as director of college relations, and in the last year she has been working as the director of special projects.

Anne has been a trusted advisor to three presidents. I have had the good fortune to work closely with her while serving as president myself and have valued her counsel very much.

She has served the College faithfully and well. She has been an ambassador to benefactors, College governors, and members of the hierarchy throughout the world. She is a Dame of Malta and is quite active in the Order.

She is presently involved in helping us prepare for our 50^th Anniversary celebration. A graduate of the College in 1981, she is rightfully proud of the fact that her four sisters and her two children are also graduates of the College and that her parents supported the College from its very beginning.

Jon Daly (’99)

Remarks by Dean John Goyette

All of you know Jon Daly. He has been for many years, in a way, the first ambassador for the College. He gets to know all of you before you enter in and greets you when you arrive as freshmen.

Jon is himself a graduate of the College. He came here in 1995. He’s had many jobs over the years. When he was a student, he started out as a groundskeeper and switched to IT, slowly working his way up. After that he was trash man. (He complained about working indoors, so I said, “Well, we have a job for you — collecting the trash!”) He did some carpentry and then, after he graduated in 1999, he did some studying at Creighton, then returned in 2000 to be an admissions counselor. Then, in the space of just  a few short years he became director of admissions in 2004.

It’s hard to really overstate the degree to which Jon is dedicated to this college and the work of recruiting students. He works tirelessly. He’s one of the people that’s always there late at night; he travels regularly. If you’ve ever been on the High School Program, which probably half of you have, he’s there every step of the way. Often he’s pretty much away from his family for two solid weeks. When we opened the second campus, he began traveling out to New England and spending two full weeks there after spending two full weeks here.

Really, his dedication to the College is amazing, and I can’t really think of a better ambassador. If you don’t like Jon Daly, there’s something really wrong with you!

Of course Jon couldn’t really do all that without the support of his wife, Marie, who is a graduate of the College as well. They have a beautiful family. For so long she has patiently put up with Jon’s time away from the family, serving the College, and really during the High School Program he’s now basically gone for a month, That’s extremely hard. So part of his success is due to the support of Marie.

I could go through lots of details of things he’s done. Really, the success of the High School Program this past decade or more has really been due to Jon’s hard work and tireless efforts. I just want to ask Jon to come up, with Marie, so we can honor him for his years of service to the College.

Peter L. DeLuca

Remarks by Dr. McLean

In June 1969, Mr. DeLuca became Thomas Aquinas College’s first employee, opening an office in an unused classroom on the campus of Dominican College in San Rafael, California. Here we are 52 years later, marking the retirement of a founder, tutor, administrative officer, interim president, and governor of the College.

Over the years Mr. DeLuca has worn almost every hat in administration, in charge at various times of the College’s business affairs, finances, fundraising, and development. In April 2009, when President Thomas E. Dillon was killed in an automobile accident, the College’s Board of Governors called upon Mr. DeLuca to serve as interim president, a position he ably held. Mr. DeLuca led this college through a very difficult and trying time. As always, when the College needed him, he was there.

Whenever his duties permitted, Mr. DeLuca continued to serve as a tutor, very successfully leading discussions, principally in our theology and philosophy tutorials and in our seminars as well.

In spite of his lifelong contributions, Mr. DeLuca believes he has received even more from Thomas Aquinas College than he has given. Four of his six children have graduated from the College. “I have been a customer as well as a producer. I have all the same good feelings that other parents have because of that,” he says. “In addition, it has been a tremendous honor to spend my life doing something so worthwhile and seeing it work. I feel as if I have been able to strike a blow in favor of Western Civilization after all.”

And strike a blow he has, indeed.