Nicholas S. Rashford, retired business professor and longtime president of St. Joseph’s University, has died at 85

Nicholas S. Rashford, 85, of Lower Merion, longtime Jesuit priest, retired president and professor of business management at St. Joseph’s University, former chair of the Delaware River Port Authority, board member, business consultant, Navy veteran, and mentor, died Monday, July 14, of age-associated decline at Manresa Hall in Lower Merion.

The Rev. Rashford became the 25th president at St. Joseph’s in 1986, and he spent the next 17 years updating the college’s infrastructure, enlarging and beautifying the campus, expanding the curriculum, and recruiting thousands of new students from Philadelphia and around the world.

He modernized classrooms with cutting-edge technology, oversaw the construction of Mandeville Hall and McShain Bridge, expanded the Erivan K. Haub School of Business, and created its executive master’s degree in business administration. He persuaded local students to live on campus and, the son of Irish immigrants, forged international partnerships with universities and businesses in Ireland, Italy, Germany, and China that attracted international students to St. Joseph’s.

“He brought the university into the future,” Gregory Dell’Omo, then the assistant vice president for academic affairs at St. Joseph’s, told the Daily Pennsylvanian in 2002.

Father Rashford also supervised the renovation of the campus sports arena, the construction of a new boathouse, the addition of five varsity sports programs, and the installation of lights and an artificial surface for the main athletic field. He served two terms on the NCAA Presidents Commission and eight years as chairman of the Atlantic 10 Conference Presidents Council.

He was an enthusiastic ambassador for the men’s basketball team, and the graduation rate for the school’s student-athletes during his tenure was among the nation’s highest. He was inducted into the school’s athletic Hall of Fame and, an avid photographer, served as the official cameraman at several men’s and women’s basketball games.

Current St. Joseph’s president Cheryl A. McConnell called Father Rashford “an inspired leader who left an indelible mark on our students and university.” She said he was a “transformative thinker …educator who cared deeply about his students …and a man of faith and vision.”

She said: “St. Joseph’s wouldn’t be what it is today without Father Rashford.”

He also confronted funding and enrollment issues, student safety concerns, sexual harassment claims against a sports coach, and the demise of the popular Big Five City Series men’s basketball tournament. He told the Daily News in 1985: “If you’re strong and your programs are outstanding, and you see turnaround in the marketplace, I think you will survive.”

He stepped down as president in 2003 and continued to teach until 2021. He was engaging and challenging in the classroom, former students said, and he urged them to embrace the emerging communication technology and be global citizens.

He taught “process as well as content,” he told the Chronicle of Higher Education in 2002, and was known to ask his students, “So, what have you learned?” He told Daily News columnist Tom Fox in 1986 that he was inspired to serve the church and teach in the 1950s by the charismatic Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen. Fox described his public speaking style as “modern …intimate …tailored to the age of television.”

Before St. Joseph’s, Father Rashford was a popular professor and dean of the School of Business Management at Rockhurst College in Kansas City, Mo. Students there voted him the top faculty member one year, and the school’s director of public relations told the Daily News in 1985: “He’s the kind of guy that can walk into a board room and talk to the CEO and then turn around and shoot the breeze with freshmen about the semester.”

He was also a visiting professor at Alberto Hurtado University in Santiago, Chile, and Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland. He served on many boards and cofounded and chaired the City Ave District community advocacy group.

As chair of the port authority in the 1980s and ‘90s, he solved problems and oversaw construction projects along the Delaware River. He joined the Navy after high school, was stationed in Iceland, and solidified his religious faith with the base chaplain.

In a tribute, colleagues at St. Joseph’s said: “Father Rashford’s presence can be felt at every corner of the University’s Hawk Hill campus.”

Nicholas Seamus Rashford was born Feb. 3, 1940, in Peoria, Ill. He won an award as the best schoolboy orator in the Diocese of Peoria, graduated from Spalding Institute, and joined the Society of Jesus in 1964.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology and philosophy, and master’s degree in urban affairs and theology at St. Louis University in Missouri. He completed a fellowship in organizational leadership at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and earned a doctorate in behavioral science at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore in 1976.

At St. Joseph’s, he helped students pay their tuition bills, and many of his photographs are exhibited around campus. In 1996, he went to Bryn Mawr Hospital to hand deliver a master’s degree to a 46-year-old student on kidney dialysis.

His cousin Nick Walsh said: “He was a man of many interests — teaching, people, and his faith.”

The Rev. Daniel R.J. Joyce, vice president of mission and ministry at St. Joseph’s, said: “Father Nicholas Rashford is one of those rare individuals who define a new era. His impact on higher education, the Philadelphia business community, and global educational partnerships created new horizons for us all.”

In addition to his cousin, Father Rashford is survived by other relatives.

Services were held July 24.