In Memoriam - John R. Cortelyou, C.M.

John R. Cortelyou, 82, Former President of DePaul

The Rev. John R. Cortelyou, who wrapped up a 60-year academic association with DePaul University as its eighth president, serving in a period of growth and turbulence, died on Saturday at St. Joseph Hospital in Chicago. He was 82 and a resident of the Chicago campus. He had been in failing health since the summer, the university said.

Father Cortelyou was president from 1964 to 1981. He guided the university -- named for Saint Vincent de Paul, founder of the charitable order -- through the civil-rights and anti-war stirrings of the 1960's. He then shaped the decisions of the 1970's that brought DePaul considerably more acreage and buildings, with additions to the Lincoln Park Campus and expansion of the Loop Campus. New construction included DePaul's first permanent residence hall, the Schmitt Academic Center and the Stuart Center. Father Cortelyou helped revamp the undergraduate curriculum and raised the standards of research by inaugurating the first doctoral programs. He also oversaw the development of the theater school into a prominent theater conservatory. After he stepped down as president, he was university chancellor and chief fund-raiser until 1993. He continued his daily work as chancellor emeritus until the summer.

John Cortelyou was born in Chicago and graduated from DePaul Academy in 1932. He completed his collegiate and theological education at St. Mary's Seminary in Perryville, Mo., and was ordained in 1940. Returning to Chicago, he taught at DePaul Academy, earned an M.S. in biology and joined the university faculty. He added a doctorate from Northwestern University in 1949 and undertook a career as a comparative endocrinologist. He served as chairman of the department of biological sciences in 1951 and held that position until his appointment as president. He was one of the university presidents who helped the Chicago Board of Education weather years of stormy racial confrontations over the school integration decreed in the 1960's.

Father Cortelyou is survived by a stepbrother, Charles Burgess, of Chicago.

Author: WOLFGANG SAXON Edition: Late Edition - Final Page: 15, New York Times, November 14, 1996 Copyright 1996, The New York Times Company

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REV. JOHN CORTELYOU OF DEPAUL 

Rev. John R. Cortelyou, 82, president of DePaul University from 1964 to 1981, shepherded the institution through the tumult of the 1960s and 1970s, and helped it grow in size and reputation.

A native of Chicago and member of the Congregation of the Mission, Father Cortelyou, who had been a Vincentian priest for more than 50 years, died Saturday in St. Joseph Hospital after a long illness. Father Cortelyou was responsible for many innovations in the academic life of the university. Revisions in undergraduate curriculum such as the expansion of the liberal arts and the inclusion of non-Catholic works in theology courses, and the addition of the school's first doctoral programs, were part of his handiwork.

In 1972, under Father Cortelyou's direction, the university opened the School for New Learning, a non-traditional educational program for adults over 24. And with his help, DePaul acquired the Goodman School of Drama from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1978.

Father Cortelyou guided the university through expansion projects, among them the purchase of eight McCormick Theological Seminary buildings, creating much of the east side of DePaul's Lincoln Park campus. Under his leadership, the university also expanded its Loop campus. "He was very attuned to what was going on around him and was interested in all of that, particularly in the welfare of the students at the university, whom he had devoted his whole life to," said Rev. Ralph Pansza, Father Cortelyou's religious superior at the DePaul Community House for Vincentian fathers and brothers.

Father Cortelyou began his own academic career at DePaul Academy, where he graduated in 1932. He received his collegiate and theological training for the priesthood at St. Mary's Seminary in Perryville, Mo., and was ordained a priest in 1940. He then returned to his hometown, where he taught at the DePaul Academy from 1940 to 1943, until he joined the faculty of DePaul University. Father Cortelyou earned a doctorate in biology from Northwestern University in 1949, and began a career as a comparative endocrinologist. He was named chairman of DePaul's department of biological sciences in 1952, where he remained until assuming the presidency in 1964.

After his retirement as president in 1981, Father Cortelyou served as chancellor and then chancellor emeritus of the university until July. "He always wanted to be involved in whatever was going on . . . to end up his days with his boots on," Pansza said.

Survivors include a stepbrother, Charles Burgess.

Visitation will be from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. Monday at St. Vincent DePaul Catholic Church, 1010 W. Webster Ave. A mass will be said at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in the church and a committal service will begin at 10 a.m. Wednesday at All Saints Cemetery Chapel, 700 N. River Rd., Des Plaines

Edition: NORTH SPORTS FINAL Page: 5 Copyright (c) 1996, Chicago Tribune Company. All rights reserved. Chicago Tribune, November 11, 1996