Rockhurst University President Announces Departure After Close of Academic Year
Tuesday, September 7, 2021
Rockhurst University President the Rev. Thomas B. Curran, S.J., announced today that he plans to step down from his role following the close of this academic year, June 30, 2022, after completing his 16th year as president.
Fr. Curran, a member of the Society of Jesus (a religious order of Catholic priests best known as the Jesuits), plans to take a sabbatical following his tenure to prepare for his next assignment. Details will be shared with the Rockhurst community when those plans are finalized.
Fr. Curran arrived at Rockhurst University in 2006 to become the 14th president of the University*, which was founded by the Jesuits in 1910. Under his leadership, the university acquired Saint Luke’s College of Health Sciences to expand its health sciences programs; prioritized diversity, equity and inclusion efforts; and re-energized the institution’s focus on social justice and its core values. His philanthropic success has resulted in more than $120 million in gifts to fund transformational capital projects including construction of the Arrupe Hall academic building (completed in 2015), the Magis Activity Center (opened in 2019) and the current renovation of historic Sedgwick Hall (scheduled to be completed in 2022).
While at Rockhurst University, Fr. Curran has established a number of social justice initiatives, including the Prosperity Center for Financial Opportunity, which provides comprehensive career and financial services to the community, and the Chillicothe Companions program, which offers Rockhurst University courses to incarcerated women and staff at the Chillicothe Correctional Center.
Since arriving in Kansas City, Fr. Curran has been active in civic life. He serves on the boards of the MRIGlobal and the Harry S. Truman Good Neighbor Award Foundation. The Jewish Community Relations Bureau has announced it will honor Fr. Curran in November with its Henry W. Bloch Human Relations Award for his work to pursue equity on campus and throughout the Kansas City community.
“We are extremely grateful for Fr. Curran’s visionary leadership and all that he has accomplished over the past 15 years,” said Thomas Hastings, M.D., president of the Rockhurst University Board of Trustees and a 1981 graduate of the institution. “Rockhurst today is a much stronger university than when Fr. Curran arrived and is in a good position to attract and welcome his successor.”
The board has retained AGB Search, a professional firm with proven expertise in higher education to conduct the search with the goal of announcing the 15th president of Rockhurst University in the first part of 2022 for a July 1 start date.
* An earlier version was corrected Oct. 5 to indicate the correct number.
