The 1956 Awardees

Joseph B. Brennan
(1903-1990)

AB 1925
Atlanta, GA

Joseph Brennan, an Atlanta attorney and president of the Georgetown University Alumni Association from 1954-1956, received the John Carroll Award in ceremonies held at the Chicago Furniture Club on May 5, 1956.

Raised in Savannah, GA, Brennan graduated from the College in 1925 and served as the editor of the Law Review at Harvard, where he graduated in 1928. He settled in Atlanta to practice law, and in 1934 became partner at Sutherland & Tuttle, one of the city's largest firms. Brennan's skills helped Sutherland become an nationally known firm for the interpretation of tax laws in the New Deal era, and the firm was subsequently named as Sutherland Asbill & Brennan.

Brennan served as president of the Alumni Association and was honored with the award upon the conclusion of his term. His term was highlighted with the inauguration of the Alumni Annual Fund.

Joseph Brennan died in 1990 at the age of 86, whereupon his family and the law firm endowed a lecture series in his name through the Kennedy Institute of Bioethics.


John S. Coleman
(1898-1958)

LLB 1924
Detroit, MI

John Coleman, the CEO of the Burroughs Corporation and a former president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, received the John Carroll Award in ceremonies held at the Chicago Furniture Club on May 5, 1956.

A native of Charles Town, WV, Coleman began a part-time job with the Burroughs Adding Machine Company while studying at Georgetown. He rose within the company to become its president and CEO in 1946, leading Burroughs (now Unisys) to an international leader in business computing.

Coleman died of a heart attack on April 13, 1958, at the age of 60.

Hon Michael I. Igoe
(1885-1967)

LLB 1908
Chicago, IL

Judge Michael Igoe, a U.S. District judge and former Congressman from Illinois, received the John Carroll Award in ceremonies held at the Chicago Furniture Club on May 5, 1956.

A 1908 graduate of the Law School, Igoe was active in the legal and political professions for almost six decades. He was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives in 1913, serving through 1930, excepting two years when he served in the U.S. attorney's office in Chicago from 1915-1917. He served two years on the democratic national Committee and was elected to Congress in 1934, serving only six months after having been appointed to the U.S. Attorney's office by President Roosevelt. In 1939, he was made a district judge, where he served on the bench through 1965. He served as vice president of the Board of Governors of the Georgetown University Alumni Association from 1940-1944.

Michael Igoe died in 1967 at the age of 82.

Philip C. Lauinger
(1900-1988)

AB 1922, Honorary Degree 1958
Tulsa, OK

Philip ("P.C.") Lauinger, a Tulsa business executive and trusted advisor to three generations of Georgetown leadership, received the John Carroll Award in ceremonies held at the Chicago Furniture Club on May 5, 1956.

Lauinger was born in Oil City, PA and raised in Pittsburgh. He enrolled at Georgetown in 1918, graduating as President of the Yard in 1922. Lauinger joined the family publishing business and moved west to Tulsa. In 1931, he was named publisher of the Oil & Gas Journal, called "the bible of the oil industry." He served as its publisher for 29 years and was chairman emeritus from 1970 until his death in 1988 at the age of 88.

Volunteer service to Georgetown was a hallmark of Lauinger, who served on the Board of Governors from 1940-44 and Board of Regents from 1952-1966. In 1967, he was among the first lay members named to Georgetown's Board of Directors. Four of his sons attended Georgetown; the youngest, Joseph (C'67) was killed in the Vietnam War and the University library was named in his honor.

Amb. Jack K. McFall
(1905-1990)

BSFS 1929
Washington, DC

Jack McFall, a former United States Ambassador to Finland, received the John Carroll Award in ceremonies held at the Chicago Furniture Club on May 5, 1956.

Following his graduation in 1929, McFall became Executive Secretary of the House Appropriations Committee through 1942, served in World War II, and returned to the Appropriations committee before President Truman named him to the consular staff in Montreal. He was later named Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs from 1949-1952.

In 1952, McFall was named the U.S. Minister to Finland, and was elevated to full ambassadorship in 1954. He retired in 1956 and died in 1970.

Hon. Joseph C. O'Mahoney
(1884-1962)

LLB 1920
Cheyenne, WY

Joseph O'Mahoney, a four term U.S. Senator from Wyoming, received the John Carroll Award in ceremonies held at the Chicago Furniture Club on May 5, 1956.

Originally from Chelsea, MA, O'Mahoney attended Columbia University for two years before beginning a career as newspaper writer, relocating to the Cheyenne (WY) State Leader, owned by state senator John B. Kendrick. When Kendrick was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1916, O'Mahoney joined his staff and took law classes at Georgetown, earning his degree in 1920 and returning to Cheyenne thereafter.

According to online accounts, O'Mahoney was particularly active in mineral rights law, and may have alerted Sen. Kendrick of activity surrounding the Teapot Dome oil field in Wyoming. Kendrick's investigation led to the uncovering of what became known as the Teapot Dome scandal, the most celebrated Washington scandal prior to Watergate.

O'Mahoney served as a state Democratic party official and assistant U.S. Postmaster General before being appointed to finish the term of Kendrick, who had died in office. Elected in 1934, he served three terms until being upset in the 1952 election. In 1954, he returned to the Senate in a special election following the death of Sen. Lester Hunt.

After suffering a stroke in 1959, O'Mahoney retired to Cheyenne, where he practiced law until his death in 1962 at the age of 78.

James S. Ruby
(1905-1964)

AB 1927, MA 1928 Ph.D. 1930
Washington, DC

James Ruby, the executive secretary of the Georgetown University Alumni Association from 1938-1964, received the John Carroll Award in ceremonies held at the Chicago Furniture Club on May 5, 1956.

Born in Helena, MT in 1905, Ruby arrived on the Hilltop in 1923 and, excepting three years of wartime service, never left. Of the campus he loved, he once wrote a poem which read, in part, "Listen, there comes through the darkness, the song of old Georgetown's bell, chanting the hour of midnight, to the echoes that know it so well."

A 1927 graduate of the College, Ruby worked in the registrar's office while pursuing graduate studies and joined the English department in 1928. A Ph.D. followed in 1930 and a professorship awaited. By 1938, Ruby chaired the English department but was approached by the University president to take over the effort of reviving the Alumni Association in advance of the school's 150th anniversary, a group which had been dormant for over a decade.

As a staff of one, with little more than a desk sitting outside the President's office, Ruby set out to create the modern alumni association. Records on alumni were haphazard and had not been fully updated since the Civil War, but Ruby pored through the University's archives and published the school's first comprehensive alumni directory in 1941. From the creation of the Board of Governors to the establishment of Alumni House, the creation of the Alumni Magazine to the Annual Fund, all were part of Ruby's vision for Georgetown and its alumni. The author of two books on the University, Ruby served 26 years as Executive Secretary (now Executive Director) of the Association, the longest tenure in that role.

On Jan. 31, 1964, Ruby attended the University's 175th Anniversary Dinner. He died of a heart attack the following morning at the age of 58. University president Edward B. Bunn S.J. said that "There was no more devoted student, teacher and alumnus in all of Georgetown's 175-year history."

John F. Sheehan, MD
(1903-1987)

MS 1927, MD 1933
Chicago, IL

Dr. John Sheehan, dean of the Loyola University Medical Center from 1951 to 1968, received the John Carroll Award in ceremonies held at the Chicago Furniture Club on May 5, 1956.

Born in Manchester, NH, Dr. Sheehan attended Georgetown for graduate and medical degrees. Following residency, he joined the faculty at Loyola in the study of pathology. He was named dean in 1951 and vice president in 1964, where he led the efforts for an expansion of the Loyola medical center.

"Dr. Sheehan deserves to be remembered with gratitude by every person who learns, delivers or receives heath care at our medical center," said Rev. Raymond Baumhart, S.J., president of Loyola, upon Dr. Sheehan's death in 1987 at the age of 84.

Hon. Richard M. Simpson
(1900-1960)

LLB 1942
Huntingdon, PA

Richard Simpson, a 11-term member of the U.S. House of Representatives, received the John Carroll Award in ceremonies held at the Chicago Furniture Club on May 5, 1956.

A 1923 of the University of Pittsburgh, Simpson worked in the insurance business until his election to Congress in 1936, whereupon he began studies at Georgetown Law School, receiving his degree in 1942. Simpson served as a Republican for 11 terms across three districts in western Pennsylvania, including terms as chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, vice chairman of the House Republican Conference and the ranking minority member of the House Ways and Means Committee.

Simpson died while in office on January 7, 1960 following complications from brain surgery.