The 1984 Awardees

Daniel J. Altobello
(1941-2022)

AB 1963
Bethesda, MD

Dan Altobello, former president and CEO of Caterair International, received the John Carroll Award in ceremonies held at the Baltimore Convention Center, on October 13, 1984.

A 1963 graduate of the College who served as President of the Yard, Altobello returned to campus in 1966 as a special assistant to the president, later serving as secretary of the university and its vice president of administrative services through 1979, whereupon he accepted a position with the in-flight catering services operated by Marriott Corporation.

Over a ten year career at Marriott, he rose to an executive vice president and chief operating officer of the catering division. In 1989, he led a buyout of Marriott's airline catering operations which became Caterair. In 1995, he retired as CEO and joined a Maryland-based venture capital firm. In later years, Altobello served as chairman of the board of trustees at Mount Holyoke College.

A father of two and married for 59 years, Dan Altobello died in September 2022 at the age of 81.

Francis L. Casey, Jr.
(1928-1994)

AB 1950, LLB 1953
Washington, DC

Francis Casey, a Washington DC attorney and past president of the Georgetown University Alumni Association, received the John Carroll Award in ceremonies held at the Baltimore Convention Center, on October 13, 1984.

Casey was born in Ithaca, NY and served in the Marine Corps in World war II before enrolling at Georgetown in 1946. Following his law degree in 1953, he joined the prominent form of Hogan & Hartson and was elevated to partner in 1965. He served as an attorney until 1985.

A long time civic volunteer Casey served on the boards of Gonzaga College high School, Trinity College, and Holy Trinity Catholic Church. he served as treasurer of the Georgetown University Alumni Association from 1978-81 and as its president from 1982 through 1984, and was honored in Baltimore at the conclusion of his term as president.

Francis Casey died in 1994 at the age of 66.

Rev. William M. J. Driscoll, SJ
(1918-2000)

AB 1939
Washington, DC

Rev. William Driscoll, the former director of the Jesuit Mission Office and a chaplain at Loyola College, received the John Carroll Award in ceremonies held at the Baltimore Convention Center, on October 13, 1984.

Born in 1918 in Lawrence, MA, Driscoll was a popular figure at Georgetown as an undergraduate, but escaped tragedy as a senior when a bout of sleepwalking sent him falling out of a second floor window at Copley Hall. Hospitalized for three months, his thoughts turned to another calling, and following graduation in 1939, joined the Jesuit order and was ordained in 1951.

Rev. Driscoll traveled extensively in India as part of the Jesuit missions before arriving at Loyola, where he was a chaplain, professor, and de facto fundraiser. Said one executive at his passing, "He was a classic Jesuit priest, a great friend of many old Baltimore families. He knew where all the Catholic wealth was in Baltimore."

"He was handsome, charming, articulate, spiritual and knowledgeable," said the Rev. Joseph M. Kennedy, associate director of the Jesuit Mission Office to the Baltimore Sun. "In his day, he was the best-known Jesuit in Maryland."

Rev. Driscoll served as the rector at Georgetown Prep from 1963 to 1966 before returning to Loyola through his retirement. He died in 2000 at the age of 81.

Leo H. McCormick
(1908-1988)

AB 1930
Baltimore, MD

Leo McCormick, an insurance executive, received the John Carroll Award in ceremonies held at the Baltimore Convention Center, on October 13, 1984.
Born in 1908, McCormick grew up in Baltimore and came to Georgetown from Boys Latin HS, where he was an able athlete but a better student. He graduated from the College in 1930 and began a long career in the insurance industry in his native Baltimore.

"Leo was a staunch Democrat his entire life," wrote a bio on the Boys Latin web site., "He worked both in Federal and state government positions. During World War II he headed the Maryland section of the Works Progress Administration and the Office of Price Administration under President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Administration. After the War he was involved with the Marshall Plan. In 1948, Leo McCormick ran unsuccessfully against George H. Fallon for a congressional seat from Maryland. In the early 1950s "Mac" was an assistant to the Democratic National Committee and later an aide to Adlai Stevenson during Stevenson's campaign for the Presidency. During the Eisenhower Administration he became an insurance salesman establishing his own general insurance agency company in 1953. He worked in the insurance industry until his retirement."

An active alumnus in his home city, McCormick served on the board of the Georgetown Club of Baltimore and was one of the original members of the Board of Governors of the Alumni Association from 1940 to 1944.

Leo McCormick died in 1988 at the age of 79.

Dr. William A. Rinn, MD
(1914-1993)

MD 1948
Baltimore, MD

Dr. William Rinn, director of psychiatric services for Associated Catholic Charities of Baltimore, received the John Carroll Award in ceremonies held at the Baltimore Convention Center, on October 13, 1984.

Born and raised in Baltimore, Rinn attended St. Charles College HS, before receiving bachelors and masters degrees from Catholic University in 1936 and 1937, respectively. He completed a medical degree from Georgetown in 1948, devoting his life in the areas of child psychiatry. "His task has been helping youngsters to build strong, positive self images so that they may pass through the developmental progress," read the dinner program at the time of his award. "Prolific have been his writings and he has contributed vast knowledge of the subject for the diagnosis and treatment of the young."

Dr. Rinn Catholic Charities from 1952 until 1982 and was director of psychiatric services at Baltimore's Bon Secours Hospital from 1965 until 1979. A lecturer at Catholic University, he volunteered at the Seton Psychiatric Institute and the Baltimore County Detention Center for youth offenders.

An active Georgetown volunteer, Dr. Rinn was a past president of the Georgetown Club of Baltimore, a longtime member of the Medical Alumni Board, and the Board of Governors of the Alumni Association from 1972 to 1975.

William Rinn died in 1993 at the age of 79.

Rev. Joseph A. Sellinger, SJ
(1921-1993)

Honorary degree 1964
Baltimore, MD

Rev. Joseph A. Sellinger, 22nd president of Loyola College, received the John Carroll Award in ceremonies held at the Baltimore Convention Center, on October 13, 1984.

Born in Philadelphia in 1921, Sellinger joined the Society of Jesus at the age of 17. Following novitiate, he taught at Spring Hill College and Loyola and was ordained in 1951. he arrived at Georgetown in 1953 as an assistant professor or theology and assistant dean of the College and was promoted to dean of the College in 1957, serving for seven years until he was named Loyola's president in 1964.

Sellinger served as President of Loyola for 29 years, a record in Jesuit higher education. " During Father Sellinger's presidency, Loyola acquired its first dormitory in 1967, established a separate School of Business and Management in 1983, elected the first lay chairman of the Board of Trustees in 1971 and admitted women in 1971, after merging with Mt. Saint Agnes College," wrote the New York Times in 1993. " Loyola College today has an operating budget of $65 million and 400 professors teaching 3,000 students, of whom 55 percent are women. When Father Sellinger was named president of Loyola in 1964, it had a budget of $1.4 million, barely 100 professors and 2,000 male students."

Rev. Sellinger was one of the litigants in a landmark Supreme Court decision over the ability of Catholic colleges to receive state funds for projects. In the 1976 decision in Roemer vs. Maryland Public Works, which centered around non-sectarian funds made available to Loyola and four other private colleges, Justice Harry Blackmun wrote: "The Court has not been blind to the fact that in aiding a religious institution to perform a secular task, the State frees the institution's resources to be put to sectarian ends. If this were impermissible, however, a church could not be protected by the police and fire departments, or have its public sidewalk kept in repair. The Court never has held that religious activities must be discriminated against in this way."

Rev. Joseph Sellinger died in his 29th year as Loyola president in 1993, at the age of 72. The business school at Loyola was named in his honor, while a student lounge at Georgetown's Leavey Center also bears his name, a memorial to his work on the Hilltop.

John W. Sullivan
(1934-2017)

AB 1956
Philadelphia, PA

John Sullivan, former chief executive officer of the Skil Corporation, received the John Carroll Award in ceremonies held at the Baltimore Convention Center, on October 13, 1984.

Born in Chicago in 1934 and graduated from the College in 1956, Sullivan joined the Skil Corporation after college, the consumer power tools business founded by his grandfather in 1921. He was promoted to vice president in 1962 and president in 1964, the youngest president of a company on the New York Stock Exchange. The company was acquired by Emerson Electric (now Bosch Tool) for $58 million in 1979.

Sullivan then began the second chapter of his business career in an unlikely place: bankruptcy court. Sullivan, joined by fellow Georgetown alumnus Thomas Reynolds, purchased the assets of the Reading Railroad for a reported $24,000. With the assets came over 600 parcels of valuable real estate owned by the railroad, including 13 acres in downtown Philadelphia known as the Reading Terminal. Sullivan was named CEO in 1981. The company was later acquired at a premium by another Hoya, James Cotter (C'59, L'63), a Los Angeles based investor.

Following the Reading sale, the Sullivans retired to Hobe Sound, FL where he developed the Loblolly Pines Golf Club, a planned development adjacent to the exclusive community of Jupiter Island, FL.

John Sullivan died in 2017 at the age of 82.