In Memoriam: David H. Gill, S.J.
Retired Associate Professor of Classical Studies David Gill, S.J., a member of the 艾可直播 College 艾可直播for almost four decades whose life and career encompassed social activism, ministering with the poor, and running marathons as well as a love of classical studies, died on January 25. He was 91.
David H. Gill, S.J.
A funeral Mass was held for Fr. Gill on January 30 at the Chapel of the Holy Spirit at the Campion Center in Weston, Mass. (Scroll down to view a video of the service.)
Fr. Gill joined the BC Classical Studies 艾可直播in 1969, though his ties to the Heights began earlier: He earned a bachelor鈥檚 degree in Greek from the University in 1956. 鈥淏ut in another sense, I鈥檝e been here since I was 13 years old,鈥� he said in an interview with 艾可直播 College Chronicle upon his retirement in 2007, explaining that he had also attended 艾可直播 College High School and the Weston School of Theology, which had close ties to BC鈥攁t that time, Weston graduates received 艾可直播 College degrees, as was the case with his 1960 master鈥檚 in philosophy. He also held a doctorate from Harvard University and licentiate in theology from the St. Georgen theology 艾可直播in Germany.
By the end of his first decade on the BC faculty, Fr. Gill had become Classical Studies Department chair, served as acting University chaplain, and been appointed to the Library Building Committee (whose work culminated in the construction of the Thomas P. O鈥橬eill Jr. Library).
In 1980, Fr. Gill became director of the College of Arts and Sciences Honors Program, which then-A&S Dean William Neenan, S.J., noted was 鈥渃entral to the college鈥檚 mission of academic excellence.鈥� He said Fr. Gill鈥檚 鈥渟cholarship and serious concern for students will well qualify him for his new task."
鈥淭he program is a great challenge getting the best students matched up with the best teachers," Fr. Gill told 艾可直播 College Biweekly at the time of his appointment.
As A&S Honors director, Fr. Gill鈥檚 job included selecting 90 students annually for the program, overseeing advisement for 350 honors students, and directing the honors curriculum. Mark O鈥機onnor, who was a 艾可直播member in the program at the time, recounted Fr. Gill鈥檚 efforts to revamp A&S Honors, such as replacing its 鈥淢odern Man鈥� sequence with an overview of the Western Cultural Tradition.
鈥淭his was much more than a sign of the times,鈥� explained O鈥機onnor, who later served as program director. 鈥淚t challenged the 艾可直播to reimagine how our freshman and sophomore seminars represented ideas and their consequences: about what, for a modern man or woman, searching out a just and moral life means in the context of what living a just and moral life has meant over the centuries.鈥� 聽
Fr. Gill stepped down as director in 1986 and returned to his role as Classical Studies chair. Looking back on his tenure in a 1987 Biweekly interview, he said the honors program provided students with 鈥渢he furnishings of the mind. How can an educated person not know Achilles and Homer and Dante鈥檚 Inferno?鈥�
To Associate Professor of the Practice of History Thomas Murphy, S.J., Fr. Gill was the essence of a classicist鈥攊mmersed in the culture, art, and literature of ancient Greece and Rome鈥攁nd a Jesuit role model.
鈥淒avid understood both the rich heritage of the Society of Jesus and its renewal in the aftermath of Vatican Council II,鈥� said Fr. Murphy, who like Fr. Gill was a Winthrop, Mass., native, and whose extended families knew one another. 鈥淎s a classicist, a subject Jesuits have taught since the days of St. Ignatius Loyola himself, he was anchored in the earliest traditions of the society. But he also saw how the search for justice in the Scriptures and in the Classic could inspire pursuit of the Catholic Church's modern day social teachings and our [Jesuit Superior General] Pedro Arrupe's call after the Vatican Council for Jesuits to take a preferential option for the poor.
鈥淒avid really embodied the proverb 鈥楾he Church is always the same and is always changing as well.鈥欌��
Fr. Gill鈥檚 regard for the social justice aspects of the Church also was evident, and expressed in a perhaps unusual, but quite contemporary, manner. Around the time he joined BC, he began long-distance running and worked his way up to participating in marathons. In 1979, Fr. Gill ran the 艾可直播 Marathon to raise funds for Haley House, then a recently created social action center in 艾可直播鈥檚 South End seeking to purchase a rooming house for low-income elderly, who were being priced out of the neighborhood.
His efforts were instrumental to the center鈥檚 success in creating affordable housing, wrote Haley House board member David Manzo 鈥�77鈥攚ho helped BC鈥檚 PULSE Program establish a partnership with Haley House that is 50 years old鈥攊n a remembrance of Fr. Gill, who continued to participate in the 艾可直播 Marathon for some years: 鈥淎s St. Paul suggests, Dave has run the good race and kept the faith. We are confident his reward awaits him in Heaven and we will be forever grateful to him.鈥�
O鈥機onnor, who often ran with Fr. Gill, quipped that the long-distance running served another purpose. 鈥淎ll our administrative tasks and curriculum goals got hammered out on the streets around 艾可直播 training for marathons. He was way ahead of me there, too: He ran close to three hours in covering the 26 miles and 385 yards.鈥�
Fr. Gill also looked well beyond 艾可直播 for opportunities to serve those in need while broadening BC students鈥� understanding of the wider world. In January of 1989, he co-led a cohort of 17 undergraduates to Haiti, where they visited schools, hospitals, and orphanages, playing with children, feeding newborn babies, and holding the hands of the dying. They went a week without showering and availability of safe drinking water was at a minimum.
鈥淚 think there鈥檚 no way you can understand extreme poverty, extreme deprivation, and all that just from books,鈥� he told Biweekly after the trip. 鈥淵ou have to have a face on it, names of people. And I think there鈥檚 no other way to do it other than to go walk around and talk with people. If you鈥檙e interested and concerned about them, there鈥檚 no substitute for being there.鈥�
In November of that year, Fr. Gill delivered the homily at a memorial Mass in St. Ignatius Church for the six Jesuit 艾可直播members at the University of Central America (UCA) in El Salvador, who along with their housekeeper and her daughter were killed by government troops. He had befriended one of the slain Jesuits, Martin Baro, while they were students in Germany, and earlier in 1989 Fr. Baro had visited BC in hopes of establishing a network of social scientists who would study people enduring extended periods of poverty, political repression, and the threat of violent death.
鈥淎t BC, he told us the story of his personal journey into that dark place,鈥� said Fr. Gill, who five years later accompanied Professor of English Joseph Appleyard, S.J., on a visit to UCA. 鈥淚 think that he would like you to know about it. For it is not only his story; it is the story of many of his fellow Jesuits in Central America and elsewhere. It is also a story that is not only for Jesuits and for Central America and for now; it is a parable of many other places and times, when brave men and women have peacefully stood up to injustice, out of the conviction of their faith, and have paid for that stand with their lives.鈥�
Almost a decade after the UCA murders, Fr. Gill accompanied nine BC undergraduates to El Salvador to immerse themselves in peasant culture and, as he explained to Chronicle, 鈥渢o put names and faces on the problem of poverty. Why is it that El Salvador is so poor and we are so rich? There鈥檚 no way to know what it鈥檚 like there unless you go.鈥� 聽
In 1994, Fr. Gill was among five 艾可直播members who published Wealth in Western Thought: The Case For and Against Riches, a collection of essays in which each co-author used individual scholarly interests to frame Western attitudes and beliefs concerning wealth. Fr. Gill鈥攚ho had come up with the book鈥檚 subtitle鈥攐ffered historical and classical context in analyzing the relationship of wealth and poverty in ancient Greece. Wealth that was excessive, ill-gotten or unjustly used was held as reprehensible, he said, but the uneven distribution of wealth or the many obstacles to upward mobility were not.
Professor Emerita of Classical Studies Dia Philippides praised Fr. Gill鈥檚 鈥渕any initiatives to transmit the values and to broaden the appeal of classical antiquity throughout the BC community鈥濃�攐ffering courses on the prose works of Greek historians, but also poetry, especially Homer and ancient Greek tragedy, either in the original texts in Greek or to broader audiences in English translation.
鈥淏y all reports he was a memorable teacher to his students,鈥� she said. 鈥淢any students within but also beyond Classical Studies must recall a unique course, Justice, that Dave developed and then taught for a number of years: The class was cross-registered in several departments and became famous across the University.鈥�
By the time of his retirement, Fr. Gill was working at BC on a half-time basis while serving as pastor of St. Mary of the Angels Catholic parish in Roxbury, a routine he hoped to keep for 鈥渢he foreseeable future,鈥� he told Chronicle.
鈥淚鈥檒l still be around gathering memories, I guess. I鈥檓 sure that my fondest memories will be of students I have taught, colleagues I have worked with, and companions I have shared life with in the Jesuit Community.鈥�
The son of the late Henry A. and Alice E. (Donovan) Gill, Fr. Gill is survived by his brothers Richard, Peter, and Henry Gill Jr., and predeceased by brother John Kevin. He is survived by nieces and nephews as well as his many Jesuit brothers.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Jesuit Community, Campion Center, 319 Concord Rd., Weston, MA 02493, to support its ministry of care for elderly and infirm Jesuits.