1965

Our classmate George Rutler has seen much of the world since his days in Hanover. The journeys in his life have not only been geographic, but also of a spiritual nature. George graduated in 1965 as the "class baby," a title reserved for the youngest member of our group. At 19, he was too young for admission to Episcopal seminary, so George "aged" while earning a master's degree in teaching from Johns Hopkins University. Eventually completing his seminary work, he became the youngest Episcopal rector in America and served for nine years as an Anglican priest in Rosemont, Pa. He also became the chaplain of Bryn Mawr College.

During this period of his life, George says he found himself gradually moving toward the Roman Catholic faith. Strongly motivated by the thoughts of the newly-elected Pepejohn Paul II, George had an audience with the late Terence Cardinal Cooke, who welcomed his conversion to Catholicism in 1979. After three years of training at the Angelicum University in Rome, George was given a one-year assignment as a parish priest in Westchester County, N.Y. He then moved for three years of service at Our Lady of Victory, which George describes as a highly unusual church due to its location on Wall Street. After post-doctoral work in theology at Oxford, George returned to New York and is now at St. Agnes Church, near the Chrysler Building. He says his present parish is again unconventional in that almost all of the nearly 40,000 persons attending Mass each week work in the area but live elsewhere.

Beyond those duties normally expected of a priest, George serves his church well in many other areas. He is the author of several books dealing with religious and biographical themes. His most recent publication, "The Cure D'Ars Today" (San Francisco: Ignatius Press), was described by John Cardinal O'Connor as "an important, fascinating work by an important, fascinating author." George is also known as an excellent speaker and has given lectures in England, France, Italy, Spain, and Canada. He was asked to serve Mass for Mother Teresa during her recent visit to New York and will soon be giving a retreat for Mother Teresa's order of nuns in Calcutta. He has appeared to discuss religious issues on William Buckley's Firing Line and The David Susskind Show. His newest assignment is to produce and appear in a weekly program of religious instruction on the national Catholic cable television network.

George says that, although he has attended seven other academic institutions, his first loyalty remains with the College. He frequently finds himself meeting others with Hanover connections and has recently been able to visit the campus. He questions current academic trends toward increasing tuition and bureaucracy, but says he will always be grateful for what those "halcyon Dartmouth days" have meant to his life. George lives beside Grand Central Station and encourages any classmates in the neighborhood to stop by for a visit.

Certainly George Rutler has gone a long way in meeting his call to service and appears to offer great promise for his future travels. He may have started a little behind the rest of us, but no one ever found a way to move more quickly from being called "class baby" to deserving the title of "class father."

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