James Francis Kelley (July 27, 1902 – September 11, 1996) was an American

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

monsignor Monsignor (; it, monsignore ) is an honorific form of address or title for certain male clergy members, usually members of the Roman Catholic Church. Monsignor is the apocopic form of the Italian ''monsignore'', meaning "my lord". "Monsignor" ca ...

who was one of the nation's youngest college presidents when he was appointed as a 33-year-old in 1936 to lead Seton Hall College and grew the school's enrollment tenfold before he left the position in 1949, shortly before it became

Seton Hall University Seton Hall University (SHU) is a Private university, private Catholic research university in South Orange, New Jersey. Founded in 1856 by then-Bishop James Roosevelt Bayley and named after his aunt, Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, Seton Hall is the ...

. Decades after his retirement, he would tell a reporter that he had been responsible for helping Amelia Earhart to live under an assumed name for decades after it had been believed she had crashed and died while flying across the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...

Early life and education

Born in

Kearny, New Jersey Kearny ( ) is a town in the western part of Hudson County, New Jersey, United States and a suburb of Newark. As of the 2010 United States Census, the town's population was 40,684,Seton Hall Preparatory School Seton Hall Preparatory School, generally called Seton Hall Prep or "The Prep", is a Roman Catholic all boys' high school located in the suburban community of West Orange in Essex County, New Jersey, operating under the supervision of the Arch ...

and from Seton Hall College in 1924.Office of the President & Chancellor: James F. Kelley records

. Accessed April 28, 2022. He received his ordination in 1928 after his studies in Belgium and earned a doctorate at the Université catholique de Louvain. Kelley was named as a monsignor in 1941 by Pope Pius XII, who had been a student in an English language class that Kelley had taught.

Career

When he was 33 years old and serving as head of the colleges' department of philosophy, he was appointed by Bishop (later Archbishop) Thomas J. Walsh of Newark to serve as president of Seton Hall College in July 1936, making him the nation's youngest college president. When he took office, he led a liberal arts school that had an enrollment of 300. Stout, David
"Msgr. James Kelley, 94, a President of Seton Hall"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', September 14, 1996. Accessed April 28, 2022. During his tenure, he oversaw the admission of women and the construction of the Walsh Gymnasium, as part of a project initiated in 1939 that would cost $600,000 (equivalent to $ million in ). He was named as a monsignor by Pope Pius XII in 1941, making him the youngest priest in the Newark Archdiocese to be recognized with that designation. Kelley stepped down from office at Seton Hall in March 1949 in the wake of an investigation into the school by the federal government that looked into potential improper sales of war surplus equipment that had been given for the school's use. He was succeeded by John L. McNulty. Enrollment at the school had grown to 6,000 by the time he left office. A year later, the school was granted

university status A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

. He was named as a pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in

Ridgewood, New Jersey Ridgewood is a village in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, its population was 24,958,Rumson, New Jersey Rumson is a borough in Monmouth County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, and is part of the New York Metropolitan Area. As of the 2020 United States Census, the borough’s population was 7,343, reflecting a 3.1% increase from the 7,122 enumera ...

. In 1991, Kelley told a reporter investigating the disappearance of Amelia Earhart, that she had survived the war and that he had been ordered by

Francis Joseph Spellman Francis Joseph Spellman (May 4, 1889 – December 2, 1967) was an American bishop and cardinal of the Catholic Church. From 1939 until his death in 1967, he served as the sixth Archbishop of New York; he had previously served as an auxiliary ...

to repatriate her to the United States, where she lived as Irene Craigmile Bolam.Rasmussen, Cecelia
"A New Take on Earhart Mystery"
''

The Los Angeles Times ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

'', November 23, 2003. Accessed April 28, 2022, via

Newspapers.com Ancestry.com LLC is an American genealogy company based in Lehi, Utah. The largest for-profit genealogy company in the world, it operates a network of genealogical, historical records, and related genetic genealogy websites. In November 2018, ...

. "Amelia Earhart vanished nearly 70 years ago, but her fate remains one of the nation’s great mysteries. The pioneering aviator disappeared on July 2, 1937, as she was flying an equatorial route around the globe.... In 1991, he went to New Jersey to interview Msgr. James Francis Kelley, 89, a retired psychologist, who affirmed that he had been commissioned by then-Archbishop Francis Joseph Spellman to bring Amelia Earhart back to the United States after the war and help give her a new identity." He died at Ocean Medical Center on September 11, 1996.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kelley, James F. 1902 births 1996 deaths American Roman Catholic priests Heads of universities and colleges in the United States People from Kearny, New Jersey People from Ridgewood, New Jersey People from Rumson, New Jersey Seton Hall Preparatory School alumni Seton Hall University alumni Seton Hall University faculty Université catholique de Louvain alumni 20th-century American academics