Dear Bellarmine faculty and staff,
I am writing to share the sad news that Maureen McGowan passed away this morning in her home in New York.
Maureen McRaith McGowan oversaw Bellarmine’s tremendous growth from 1990 to 2016 with her husband, President Joseph J. McGowan. The McGowans, who met when she was a student at St. Mary's College and he was a student at Notre Dame, arrived in Louisville in 1990 from New York City, where Dr. McGowan had served as vice president of student affairs and dean of students at Fordham University. He was Bellarmine’s third president and our longest-serving president to date.
Dr. McGowan insisted that Bellarmine never lose its personal touch—and Maureen McGowan helped to make it feel like a home. She and Dr. McGowan created a sense of true community on campus and off, welcoming students and parents to the university and to the President’s House. The McGowans entertained often at the President’s House in Glenview. Maureen McGowan was always the consummate hostess—even if she had arrived from work just a few minutes before the guests. Friends and colleagues describe Maureen as kind, warm, and gracious – attributes that anyone who met her would confirm.
Maureen was at home with her husband on the morning of March 1, 2016, when he died suddenly and peacefully of a pulmonary embolism at the age of 71. At his visitation in Knights Hall, she stood for hours as hundreds of people lined up to pay their respects—and true to form, she comforted them. Following Dr. McGowan’s death, Maureen moved back to Manhattan. She had been in hospice care for several months.
In addition to her twin sons, Matthew and Joseph, Maureen McGowan’s survivors include her daughters-in-law Emma and Heidi and five grandchildren, Alessia, Sofia, Neve, Fiona and Luke. She will be buried next to her husband in Evanston. Read her
full obituary here.
Please keep the McGowan family and Bellarmine community in your prayers.
Sincerely,
Susan M. Donovan, Ph.D.
President