William Patrick Power,

C.S.Sp. , image = Holy Ghost Fathers seal.png , size = 175px , caption = The seal of the Congregation depicting the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and the Holy Spirit proceeding from the Trinity. , abbreviation ...

(1843–1919) was the first head of

Duquesne University Duquesne University of the Holy Spirit ( or ; Duquesne University or Duquesne) is a private Catholic research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Founded by members of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit, Duquesne first opened as the Pittsbu ...

, founded as the "Pittsburgh Catholic College of the Holy Ghost". Power was born in 1843 and ordained in 1866; he had spent many years teaching in Spiritan missions in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label=Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It incl ...

and

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...

before coming to

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

First rector of Pittsburgh Catholic College

Father

Joseph Strub Joseph Strub, C.S.Sp. (November 1, 1833 – January 27, 1890), an Alsatian missionary priest with the Congregation of the Holy Ghost, was the founder of what is today Duquesne University, which was called the Pittsburgh Catholic College of the H ...

, the founder of the College, was not happy with the Spiritan Superior General's choice of Father Power as the first rector of the Pittsburgh Catholic College, since he believed Pittsburgh's immigrant Catholics would perceive a German rector as more industrious and disciplined than an Irish one. In fact, he specifically requested that the rector not be Power, but he was selected nonetheless. While the German Holy Ghost Father John Bernard Graff served in Power's capacity as he traveled from Ireland, the Irish-born bishop of Pittsburgh,

John Tuigg John Tuigg (February 19, 1820 – December 7, 1889) was an Irish-born prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as the third bishop of the Diocese of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania from 1876 to 1889. Biography Early life John Tuigg w ...

, showed his animosity for the interim rector's nationality and offered little support for the newly established institution, even refusing the Holy Ghost Fathers the right to exercise priestly functions at the College, such as saying

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...

or hearing confessions. Father Strub left two weeks after the College was opened on October 1, 1878 for Arkansas, eager to avoid further provoking Bishop Tuigg. Power was rector during an essential and formative stage of Duquesne University's history: he was in office when the College received its state charter on July 7, 1882, and as the Old Main administration building was built on Boyd's Hill overlooking the

Monongahela River The Monongahela River ( , )—often referred to locally as the Mon ()—is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed August 15, 2011 river on the Allegheny Plateau in North Cen ...

. The "Victorian Medievalistic" structure was at that time the highest point on Pittsburgh's skyline. Father Power's tenure was brief. Only two months after the administration building was dedicated in April 1884, Power was assigned to St. Mary College in Trinidad. He was succeeded by the German-born Father

John Willms John S. Willms, C.S.Sp. (March 22, 1849 – January 3, 1914) was a German Roman Catholic priest in the Congregation of the Holy Ghost. He worked in a missionary capacity among the Catholic population in the United States, serving as the second r ...

Power Center

On 14 March 2006 Duquesne University began construction on a facility named in honor of Father Power. The building dedicates to fitness facilities, and also includes a

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branch and a casual dining restaurant. The Power Center officially opened at the beginning of the Spring 2008 semester.

Notes and references

;References ;Works cited * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Power, William Patrick 1843 births 1919 deaths Presidents of Duquesne University 19th-century Irish Roman Catholic priests Holy Ghost Fathers Irish Spiritans Irish emigrants to the United States