To mark the 50th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood, the Rev. Sean M. Hogan, C.S.Sp., celebrated with a special Mass and reception on Sept. 23.
More than 350 family, friends and members of the campus community gathered to mark the occasion with an evening filled with prayer, Irish music and dancing. All attendees received a special, commemorative bobblehead in the likeness of Hogan.
A native of County Limerick in Ireland, Hogan entered the Congregation of the Holy Spirit in 1959 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1967. The following year, he was assigned to work in the Diocese of Nairobi, Kenya, where he served as a high school principal and as pastor of a large parish, overseeing several churches, schools, hospitals and the nation’s first youth center.
Hogan left Kenya due to illness in May 1975 for a sabbatical at Duquesne. The one-year sabbatical turned into 42 years of work, service and accomplishments at the University.
After earning a Master’s in Education from Duquesne in 1976, Hogan spent three years traveling to churches throughout the United States raising funds for missions in Kenya. His fundraising experience led to a 1980 appointment as associate director of development at Duquesne, where he led the law school’s capital campaign for the construction of Hanley Hall.
Two years later, Hogan was named the founding director of Duquesne’s Office of International Education, where a course for remarkable growth in the University’s international enrollment was set. Starting with just 15 international students in 1982, the University now serves more than 625 students from 77 nations, and Duquesne alumni live and work in 110 different countries.
After serving as executive vice president for student life from 1986 to 2015, Hogan has shaped nearly every aspect of the student experience at Duquesne, including a nationally recognized, student-run orientation program; more than 180 recognized student organizations; and residence halls that house nearly 4,000 students. During that period, University enrollment increased by nearly 50 percent, and retention and graduation rates rose dramatically.
Hogan’s tenure, however, is best defined by the relationships he has built with generations of students and alumni. He has performed countless weddings and baptisms for alumni couples, both on campus and around the world. Hogan’s office is filled with photos and mementos, and his address book is a thick binder stuffed with hundreds of names and notes about former students with whom he stays in touch.
In 2015, Hogan was named the first president of the Duquesne University Scholarship Association through which he leads a network of alumni volunteers to help raise money for need-based scholarships in an effort to further both his Spiritan predecessors’ vision and his own deep commitment to making a Duquesne education more affordable to all.