The 1959 Awardees

Most Rev. Joseph B. Brunini
(1910-1996)

AB 1930, Honorary degree 1957
Jackson, MS

Joseph Brunini, Bishop of Jackson, MS from 1967 to 1984, received the John Carroll Award in ceremonies held at the University Club in Detroit, MI on May 9, 1959.

Brunini, a 1930 graduate of the College, continued his studies at the Pontifical North American College in Rome, where he was ordained in 1933. Following a doctorate in canon law at Catholic University in 1937 he returned to his native Mississippi for pastoral assignments.

At the time of the award, Brunini was auxiliary bishop of Natchez, MS, and became bishop of what is now the diocese of Jackson, MS in 1967, retiring in 1984.

Bishop Brunini died in 1996 at the age of 86.

Hon. John D. Dingell, Jr.
(1926-2019)

BS 1949, JD 1952
Detroit, MI

John Dingell, who served for a record 59 years in the United States Congress, received the John Carroll Award in ceremonies held at the University Club in Detroit, MI on May 9, 1959.

Dingell first visited the House floor in 1933, a six year old accompanying his father as John Dingell, Sr. was sworn in to Congress. At 14, he was on the floor of the House chamber as a page the day President Franklin Roosevelt addressed the nation after Pearl Harbor. After graduating from Georgetown Prep in 1944, he enrolled at the University and served in World War II before returning to resume his studies.

A three year letterman on the now defunct Georgetown rifle team, Dingell graduated from the Hilltop in 1949 with a degree in chemistry, helping to pay for the cost of tuition as an elevator operator at the Capitol. He graduated from Georgetown Law in 1952 and returned to Detroit, whereupon he decided to run for Congress after his father died in office in 1955. Elected to Michigan's 15th district, he won 30 consecutive elections to Congress and was one of just two World War II veterans remaining in the legislature at the time of his retirement in 2015.

Over a Congressional career that spanned 11 presidents, Dingell was always supportive of his education at Georgetown, where his brother James (C'54, G'57, G'63) and his wife Debbie (F'75) also graduated; the latter succeeded him in Congress. A member of the Dingell family has now served Michigan in Congress every year since 1933.

John Dingell died in 2019 at the age of 92.

Pinckney J. Harman
(1913-1966)

BS 1934, MS 1935
Newark, NJ

Pinckney Jones Harman, professor of anatomy at the New Jersey College of Medicine, received the John Carroll Award in ceremonies held at the University Club in Detroit, MI on May 9, 1959.

A native of Washington DC, Harman received a bachelor's and master's degree in 1934 and 1935. Following a year as an instructor in the biology department, he moved to Yale to earn his Ph.D in 1941. Harman returned to Georgetown as an anatomy professor from 1941-1946 before accepting a post at NYU, where he taught from 1946 to 1956.

Harman was a professor of anatomy at the Seton Hall College of Medicine, which was acquired by the state of New Jersey shortly before his death in 1966 at the age of 53. Professor Harman contributed over 70 articles for publication in the field of anatomy, specializing in comparative neurology.

Hon. Philip A. Hart
(1912-1976)

AB 1934, Honorary degree 1970
Detroit, MI

Philip Hart, who served as the "conscience of the U.S. Senate" from 1959-1976, received the John Carroll Award in ceremonies held at the University Club in Detroit, MI on May 9, 1959.

Raised in Bryn Mawr, PA, Hart was a prodigious member of the Class of 1934. President of the Yard, associate editor of The HOYA, assistant manager for the football team, President of the Philodemic Society, and winner of the Merrick, Galvin and White medals for oratory, Hart was a legendary figure in his graduating class. He received his law degree at Michigan prior to joining the U.S. Army at the onset of World War II. Hart was awarded the Bronze Star and Purple Heart following the invasion of Normandy, where he was wounded by an artillery shell. Recuperating stateside, he was in the same hospital which housed veterans Bob Dole and Daniel Inouye, each of whom would serve with Hart in the Senate together.

Hart served as Lt. Governor of Michigan from 1954-1958, and was elected to the Senate as a Democrat in 1958 serving until his death from cancer in 1976 at the age of 64.

"Phil Hart has set a standard to which every Senator should aspire," said Sen. Frank Church (D-Idaho). "No other member of this body has expressed a greater moral force throughout his years of service here." The Hart Senate Office Building was named in his honor shortly before his death, while Georgetown named the moot court room at the Law Center to honor his remarkable legacy.

Philip J. Monaghan
(1914-1993)

AB 1936
Detroit, MI

Philip Monaghan, an executive with General Motors, received the John Carroll Award in ceremonies held at the University Club in Detroit, MI on May 9, 1959.

Monaghan grew up in Detroit and returned to Detroit after college, rising up the ranks of managers at General Motors. he served as general manager of the GMC truck line and later served as vice president of process improvement across the GM brands.

In addition, to the John Carroll Award, Monaghan received the University's 175th Anniversary medal in 1964.

Monaghan died in 1993 at the age of 79.

Lt. Col. Richard D. Mudd, MD
(1901-2002)

AB 1921, MA 1922, Ph.D. 1925, MD 1926
Saginaw, MI

Dr. Richard Mudd, a Saginaw, MI physician who devoted his life to clear the reputation of his grandfather, received the John Carroll Award in ceremonies held at the University Club in Detroit, MI on May 9, 1959.

Born in Washington, DC in 1901, Mudd grew up in Anacostia and graduated from Gonzaga College High School before enrolling at Georgetown in 1918. Over the course of the next eight years, Mudd would earn four degrees from the University, ending with his medical degree in 1926. Specializing in industrial medicine, he was closely involved in health and wellness at various General Motors facilities over the next three decades. A member of the Army reserves dating from his ROTC commitment at Georgetown, he served in the military for 40 years, including active duty in World War II and Korea, and retired a lieutenant colonel in 1966.

For the last half of his life, Mudd served to clear the name of his grandfather, Dr. Samuel Mudd, who attended Georgetown in 1851-52. It was Samuel Mudd who set the broken leg of John Wilkes Booth in Bryantown, MD on Apr. 15, 1865, injured after Booth leapt from the balcony at Ford's Theatre following the shooting of President Abraham Lincoln. Samuel Mudd was one of three Georgetown alumni convicted in the conspiracy and served nearly four years in prison. He was later pardoned but the conviction stood.

Richard Mudd held that his grandfather was wrongly prosecuted in that he would have had no knowledge of Booth's crime, committed 30 miles away from Washington and just a few hours earlier, with no news of the crime reported until the next day. By then, Booth proceeded south into Maryland, crossed the Potomac River into Virginia, and was not captured for another 11 days.

Mudd enlisted the support of two U.S. Presidents and several members of Congress to affect a change in his grandfather's record, but was repeatedly turned down by the Pentagon. Two years after his death in 2002 at the age of 101, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the filing deadline for such a change had passed; however, his descendants continue to be resolute.

The papers detailing Dr. Richard Mudd's research and correspondence were donated to Georgetown upon his death.