Memorial Library Renamed for Father Hesburgh
In 1987, Father Hesburgh retired as President of the University of Notre Dame after thirty-five years. Under his leadership, Notre Dame doubled its enrollment, introduced lay governance , admitted the first female undergraduate students, and increased its endowment from $9 million to $350 million. During his tenure, the campus also added forty buildings, including the Memorial Library. It seemed only fitting that the University trustees voted to rename the Library the “Theodore M. Hesburgh Library” on the occasion of his retirement.
Following a year away from campus, spent traveling with his colleague and close friend Rev. Edmund P. Joyce, C.S.C., Father Ted returned to Notre Dame and his new offices in the Library. As he describes it in his autobiography, God, Country, Notre Dame, “On my return, I found my old office desk, my books, and best of all, my secretary of almost forty years, Helen Hosinski, moved to the thirteenth floor of the newly named (I tried to avoid it) Theodore M. Hesburgh Library. Ned Joyce occupied the office adjacent to and similar to mine. My new office fulfilled all my desires, with book shelves from floor to ceiling and a window giving the best possible panoramic view of the Notre Dame campus with the gold dome and the Sacred Heart Church spire in the center.”
Since taking up residency on the thirteenth floor, Father Ted’s presence has become a cornerstone of daily life in the Library. A steady stream of guests make the pilgrimage to his office, ranging from past and present students to vising dignitaries. Fifty years after the opening of the Library, his original vision and continued presence remain an inspiration to the Notre Dame family.
