USD Magazine, Summer 2003

Hayes carrying a feline cadaver co a science lab or scoring moldy mushrooms, inevitably part of a science experiment on fungi, in her refrigerator. It was fungi , in fact, that led her co a career in teaching and ultimately blazed the trail co her presidency. "I actually wasn't drawn or called co university life," Hayes says. "I had been working in a research lab and was doing research in mycology, the study

Bishop Wilton D. Gregory, who created che review board, recruited Hayes because of her academic and professional research background. "I cannot chink of a person who has assisted the U.S. Catholic Bishops more generously on our national review board," says Gregory, who leads the Diocese of Belleville, in southern Illinois. "Dr. Hayes has been an active and wise adviser and collaborator in this vital work. I do not think I could have chosen a better-versed person for the board." The Scholar Her sisters, Gerry Taylor and Joan Bourke, say that even as children they knew Hayes was the smartest in the family. A book was her con– stant companion, even when it was her turn co wash dishes. She'd wedge her latest come behind the soap dispenser, remembers Bourke, who says drying dishes for Hayes was slow-going because she'd wash a dish, set it in the dish drainer, dry her hands, turn the page and read while she washed the next one.

Alice Bourke graduated from

of fungi . Mundelein College in 1959. "I was working with fungi that caused a disease for which there was no cure, and my husband was very anxious about me working with an incurable pathogen," Hayes says of John, her husband of 20 years, who died in 1981 . "So, when I was contacted by a former teacher at Mundelein about an opening co teach at Loyola, I looked into it. It was exciting co teach. I thought I'd do it for a year or two and now, of course, I'm finishing 41 years." Hayes spent 27 years at Chicago's Loyola University, and worked her way up the ladder from professor to dean to vice president for academic affairs. She later became executive vice president and provost ac Saint Louis University. Throughout her administrative career, she retained her lifetime love of science, a passion that shows in achievements both grandiose and humble. At USD, she helped pave the way for the new Donald P. Shiley Center for Science and Technology. Bue her botanist's apprecia– tion for Alcala Park's landscaping also spurred her co photograph and, with a scientist's precision, document every plant on campus. "There are a lot of bright people in the world who excel in just one area," Bourke says. "But what impresses me about Alice is the breadth of her knowledge. She's interested in everything from science to music. She can play just about anything on the piano, and can belt out an opera or just as easily sing 'Proud Mary.' "

The daughter of Irish Catholic immigrants, Hayes grew up in Chicago as the third of four children. Her father, Joe, was a motor– man for the Chicago Transit Authority and her mother, Mary Alice, worked as a governess before she was married. Every Sunday, the family attended Mass in shifts. Hayes' grand– mother went co the 7:30 a.m. service, while her father opted for the last Mass and the rest of the family picked a service

Summer 1941:The family on the porch. Alice on Aunt Margaret's lap. Back row, mother Mary Alice Bourke holding Joan,– Gerry and father William J. Bourke. Front row, cousins Tom and Helen.

somewhere in between. This faith, planted by her family and cultivated by years of working in Catholic higher education, shaped Hayes' life and carried into all realms of her career. When things go wrong, a true leader looks in the mirror and asks, "Where did I go wrong?" But when things go right, the leader looks through the window and says, "Look at all those people, and everything they did to make this happen. "Hayes was such a leader. Lazarus, who has known Hayes for more than 15 years, says her knowledge, wisdom and leadership springs from principles rooted in the Catholic tradition. "Faith helped her get through the worst of life and celebrate the best of life," he says. "It's part of everything she does. " At St. Gregory High School, Hayes was a class representative co the student council, and a member of the national honor society and the debate team. A magna cum Laude biology graduate of Mundelein College, Hayes quenched her thirst for knowledge by taking a job with Encyclopedia Britannica, looking up obscure facts for customers. Always a scientist at heart, it wasn't uncommon to see

The president's passion for science, botany and working with students remained strong during her 41-year career, which ended in June when, as her final official act, she opened the Donald P. Shiley Center for Science and Technology.

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SUMMER 2003