Rev. Paul L. Locatelli, SJ

The Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities (AJCU) mourns the death of former Santa Clara University president and past chair of the AJCU board of directors, Fr. Paul L. Locatelli, SJ, who died on July 12 from pancreatic cancer.

"Paul Locatelli, SJ, was the personification of what a Jesuit education is all about," said Fr. Charles L. Currie, SJ, president of AJCU. "He was committed to academic excellence, while at the same time being focused on the importance of ethics and social justice education and global citizenship. He was a great leader and a dear friend who will be sorely missed."

Fr. Locatelli served as president of Santa Clara University (SCU) for 20 years before being appointed the Secretary for Higher Education for the Society of Jesus, a post that took him to Rome from his native California. He was serving in the role of higher education secretary, as well as chancellor of SCU, at the time of his death.

Paul Leo Locatelli was born on September 16, 1938, the middle child of three sons born to Marie and Vincent Locatelli. He was raised in Boulder Creek, CA, and was the first in his family to attend college. He graduated from the University of Santa Clara (later becoming Santa Clara University) in 1961 and earned a doctorate in business administration from the University of Southern California in 1971. He was ordained a priest and received a master of divinity degree from the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley in 1974.

Before taking the helm at SCU, Fr. Locatelli was a professor of accounting (voted outstanding teacher of the year), and served in several administrative roles at Santa Clara, first as associate dean in the Leavey School of Business, then as Academic Vice President.

A beloved university president, priest and leader in higher education, Fr. Locatelli was committed to educating for justice and to forming students to lead lives of competence, conscience and compassion. One of the legacies of his presidency was his vision to make Santa Clara an institution dedicated to ethics and social justice initiatives. This commitment would result in the formation of the Ignatian Center for Education, which focuses on faith and justice education, and the development of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics.

When Fr. Locatelli stepped down as president in 2008, he left SCU in a better place academically, financially, and aesthetically. He was the recipient of numerous leadership awards and served on several boards.

In his new role as Secretary of Jesuit Higher Education, Fr. Locatelli continued to bring his vision for a more just world to the forefront of his activities. He was the organizing force behind an international gathering of Jesuits in higher education that met this past April in Mexico City. The conference, “Networking Jesuit Higher Education for the Globalizing World: Shaping the Future for a Humane, Just, Sustainable Globe" focused on frontier challenges such as poverty, sustainability and human rights as related to the work of Jesuit universities worldwide. Regarding his hopes for the conference, he stated, "Learning in a global context is the future, and as the only global network of higher education in the world, Jesuit higher education should seize this opportunity and at the same time, accept its responsibility for helping to fashion a more humane, just and sustainable world for all.”

"Fr. Locatelli never stopped learning, never stopped listening, and never stopped dreaming in the power of education and its impact to affect change in the world," said Fr. Currie. "It is our hope that we can continue the good work he started."