When Jesuit Father Joseph Lingan became the new president of Gonzaga College High School in Washington in the summer of 2021, he moved his office to the main building on campus, just inside the front door and near the chapel.

“I wanted to be more in the middle of things,” he said, noting that it is a tradition at Jesuit schools to put the chapel in the middle of the campus. “I thought the same should be true of the president. It’s been wonderful… Faculty and students feel much freer to come into the office, and I’m much more accessible… I see students coming and going. I have a magnificent view of our Eye Street campus.”

Being at the center of Gonzaga, and having Gonzaga at the center of his life, is nothing new for Father Lingan, who graduated from the all-boys Jesuit high school in 1975, served as a faculty member there from 1991-95, served on the school’s Board of Trustees from 1999 to 2008, and was its interim president for the 2010-11 school year following the sudden death of Jesuit Father Allen Novotny, then the school’s president.

In a Jan. 14 interview, Father Lingan joked that if he had been told as a Gonzaga student that he would one day return to lead the school, he wouldn’t have believed it. Now that he is at the helm of his alma mater he said he appreciates “the opportunity and blessing I now experience as Gonzaga’s president.”

Key focuses in his work now, he said, include “fully opening our school following the necessary pivot caused by the COVID pandemic, and on celebrating Gonzaga’s bicentennial.   Longer term, I am focused on ensuring Gonzaga’s continued educational and institutional success.”

Father Lingan’s Catholic roots, and his roots at Gonzaga, run deep. He grew up at Blessed Sacrament Parish in Alexandria, Virginia, where he and his brothers attended elementary school.

“My parents appreciated the qualities and values of Catholic education,” he said. “My parents, my mom especially, actively did what they could to support the schools in which we were enrolled.”

Later, he and four of his brothers attended and graduated from Gonzaga. Over the years, his father served as the Fathers Club president there, and the future priest’s mother served as the president of the school’s Mothers Club and helped in the school’s Development Office.

“My family’s introduction to Gonzaga began in 1962, when my oldest brother, Jim, was entering high school. For the next 13 years, one or in some years, two Lingan boys attended Gonzaga. That ended when I graduated in 1975.  Then, it resumed, if you will, when I returned to teach at Gonzaga in 1991, and my nephew attended Gonzaga beginning in the fall of 1992,” Father Lingan said.

While he was a student at Gonzaga, he worked on the school newspaper and yearbook, played in the school band and on its softball team, and participated in the math, science and booster clubs. Father Lingan said attending the school helped deepen his spiritual life and his appreciation for the value of education, and he was inspired by the Jesuits and the lay teachers there.

“The introduction to Ignatian prayer and its practice while in college was a major factor in my discernment to later enter the Jesuits,” he said.

After earning a bachelor’s degree in public administration from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 1979, he entered the Society of Jesus, and Father Lingan was ordained as a Jesuit priest in 1990. He earned a master’s degree in theology and spirituality from the Weston School of Theology in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

When he was a Jesuit regent in the mid-1980s, he began teaching as a faculty member at Scranton Preparatory School in Pennsylvania, where he taught American culture and American political systems.  “I loved it!” he said of his entry into teaching.

Then Father Lingan returned to Gonzaga College High School as a faculty member in 1991, which he noted was exactly 20 years after he first arrived on campus as a freshman there.

At Gonzaga, he taught modern European history and American political systems. 

“To teach that class (on American political systems) here in Washington, D.C. was fantastic!” the priest said, adding, “Further, you might well imagine what a privilege it was to come back to the place, the school, that had had such a positive impact on me, and to have an opportunity to give back and perhaps be a positive impact on others was great!”

Reflecting on what serving as a Catholic school educator meant to him, Father Lingan said, “More than teaching a subject, you are teaching young people how to learn, and hopefully, to see the value of learning as a whole, and the importance of ongoing education. I like seeing young people learn, make connections, and as a result mature and engage more fully in the world around them. Further, as a part of all that, to encounter God and develop a personal relationship with Him and with Jesus is also supremely important.”

While serving as Gonzaga’s interim president in 2010-11, Father Lingan said his focus was on consoling a grieving community following the death of Father Novotny, and preparing the community for new leadership.

“At the conclusion of that academic year, honestly, I was saddened to leave Gonzaga. At that point, I thought and felt, ‘I am leaving Gonzaga for good.’”

Over the years, Father Lingan served as the rector of the Georgetown University Jesuit community from 2011-18, and from 2019 until becoming Gonzaga’s president, he was the associate director at the Ignatius House Jesuit Retreat Center in Atlanta. While in that ministry, he was asked by the order’s provincial if he would consider being a candidate for the presidency at one of their high schools. After thinking and praying about it, Father Lingan said he “stated my belief that the secondary education apostolate is our (the Society of Jesus’) most important work, and if he thought I could be a help, I’d be happy to be a candidate.”

Later, the Board of Trustees at Gonzaga selected Father Lingan to be the school’s next president.

“I was both humbled and honored by their confidence in me,” he said about returning to lead his alma mater. “It is such a privilege to be Gonzaga’s president.”

The priest – who is believed to be the first Gonzaga alumnus to serve as the school’s president – said it has been exciting to be the president there during its bicentennial celebration. 

“I was deeply moved on Sept. 8, 2021, the actual 200^th birthday of Gonzaga,” he said, noting that early that morning he joined a Heritage Walk to 917 F Street, N.W., the first site of Gonzaga, where now a wall of a building there is the only remnant of the original campus. He and others from Gonzaga stopped and prayed there.

Then he celebrated a bicentennial Mass for Gonzaga at St. Aloysius Church on campus. “To then gather with our entire faculty, staff and student body and celebrate a Mass of Thanksgiving was fantastic,” said Father Lingan.

That day as Gonzaga kicked off its bicentennial, the school community gathered for an assembly at the football field, highlighted by students from the classes of 2022 and 2023 lining up to form the giant numerals 200 on the field. As Father Lingan and student leaders cut a cake, students sang “Happy Birthday” to their school.

Gonzaga’s bicentennial has coincided with the school continuing its operation during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Running any school during this time of pandemic has been a challenge,” said Father Lingan. “For its part, Gonzaga has done exceptionally well . . . thanks to the hard work and determination of our administration, faculty and staff, as well as the support, flexibility, patience and perseverance of our students and their parents.   This academic year (2021-2022), we instituted a vaccine mandate for faculty, staff, and students, and as a result, have been able to remain fully open.  This academic year, the joy on campus has been palpable.”

He praised the work of Gonzaga’s staff in helping to keep Gonzaga open and running smoothly during the pandemic, and he added, “Our faculty deserve so much credit for their hard work and flexibility. They have managed and endured well through virtual, hybrid, and in-person learning since the spring of 2020. They deserve high praise and appreciation for all their hard work during this time.”

Father Lingan said that during the pandemic, Gonzaga’s educators and Gonzaga as an institution have demonstrated competence, creativity and resilience. “This time has made clear that we care deeply for our students, their learning, their safety, and their well-being,” he said. “I think we have come to confirm that while virtual and hybrid learning can take place, these are relatively poor substitutes for in-person learning when it comes to educating high school students.”

When asked how Gonzaga has changed from when he was a student and teacher there, the priest said, “The most notable change is Gonzaga’s growth.  Growth in enrollment, academic programming, extra-curricular activities, athletic programming, and in the size of our campus.” But he added one thing that continues to mark Gonzaga is the school’s spirit, which he said is “a Holy Spirit! I see it in our alumni, our students, our parents, and our faculty, staff, and administrators.”

While serving as Gonzaga’s president during its bicentennial year, Father Lingan said he has reflected on the school’s historic legacy and its future promise, and how God’s grace and Spirit have touched the school over the years.

“For Gonzaga, or for that matter, any institution to endure for 200 years is a remarkable achievement; not an achievement of one individual, but of many, in fact, (of) generations,” he said. 

As the school marks its 200^th year, Father Lingan said, “This is a moment when we should, appropriately look back, reflect, and be grateful, but it is also a moment when we should look ahead, and plan ahead; to continue to build on our solid foundation and ensure Gonzaga’s future. This is a moment to acknowledge our successes, and to learn from our failures, and think ahead, dream ahead.”  

Gonzaga’s president added, “Gonzaga is not old, but historic and strong… In 1821, it was believed that this school was needed to help serve and educate the young men of Washington and in turn serve this city. In 2021-2022, I humbly and firmly acknowledge that Gonzaga is needed more than ever, and a Gonzaga ‘Man for Others,’ is needed more than ever.”