USD Magazine, Summer 1992

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The promise of a challenge brought him here. His deep faith

and the friends he found made him stay.

ot many people would stand in front of Pope

N ovv, after 1 7 years as vice president for

John Paul II, the leader of the Catholic world, and notice his shoes. But the Pontiff's choice of footwear caught the eye of Jack Boyce, USD's vice president of financial affairs, when he met the pope in 1986. Leaning back in his chair, with one foot propped comfortably on his desk, Boyce's blue eyes sparkle mis– chievously behind his glasses as he recalls the moment. "The pope was sitting in a throne-like chair, in a beautiful robe, and I looked down and noticed that his feet were crossed, like this." Boyce crosses his feet at the ankles. "I looked closer, and saw that he had on penny loafers. "Penny loafers on the pope! Can you imagine?" The same attention to detail that led to the startling discovery of the

financial affairs, Jack Boyce is retiring

from the university he took from shaky

ground to solid footing.

pope's penny loafers has helped one John D. Boyce lead USD from shaky ground to solid footing during his 17-year tenure. Just ask the two people most often associated with the universi– ty's growth and vitality over the past two decades, President Author E. Hughes and Provost Sister Sally Furay, RSCJ. It is Boyce, they say, who should get the lion's share of the credit for the physical beauty and financial stability the university enjoys today. "So much of this place wouldn't be here without Jack Boyce," says Sister Furay, gesturing toward the

campus. "A lot of what the presi– dent and I get credit for, Jack has made possible." Leaning forward in her chair, Sister Furay adds emphatically, "The man is a genius." And Hughes concurs. "The rea– son we are on solid financial ground today is because of Jack." It is no wonder that the sentiment echoing around Alcala Park these days is that "Nobody is irreplace– able, but Jack Boyce comes close." Boyce is retiring Aug. 1, when his successor comes on board. Even so, Boyce will be involved in USD affairs, coming to campus part-time as a special advisor to Hughes.

by Jacqueline Genove.1e

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USO MAGAZINE

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