Among those happily watching the May 11 pinning ceremony for students about to graduate from the Conway School of Nursing at The Catholic University of America was William E. Conway Jr., a major benefactor to the program, its students and faculty.

“I’m very proud of them,” he said in an interview. “…They are an extraordinary group of people.”

Two days later, the Conway School of Nursing conferred 82 bachelor’s degrees, 19 doctoral degrees and 11 master’s degrees during Catholic University’s commencement.

Conway, the co-founder and co-chairman of the Board of Carlyle, a global investment firm, provides significant support to the nursing schools at Catholic University and Trinity Washington University, and also supports nursing school programs at the University of Maryland, Howard University, George Washington University, Johns Hopkins University, the University of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University, Penn State University, Villanova University, Duchesne University and the University of North Carolina.

He and his wife Joanne provide that support through their Bedford Falls Foundation, named after the character George Bailey’s fictional town in “It’s a Wonderful Life,” which is his favorite movie.

“I just think of myself as the luckiest person, and George Bailey was too,” William Conway said, noting that movie is also “about a community coming together.”

Conway, a Catholic who attends Mass at St. Luke’s Church in McLean and the Church of the Little Flower in Bethesda, originally established the foundation to help create jobs after the global financial crisis in 2008, but it eventually evolved to supporting scholarships for nursing school students and support for the hiring of more faculty at those schools.

At Catholic University, he supports full scholarships for nursing students, and has provided financial support for the Conway School of Nursing to increase the size of its faculty, and for the construction of a new building for the nursing school on the CUA campus that is expected to open in 2024. The new building will be three times the size of its current facility, providing the university an opportunity to double the number of nursing students who can attend the school.

That generous support has been “transformational” for Catholic University’s Conway School of Nursing, said Marie Nolan, its dean who came back to lead her alma mater’s nursing school in 2022 after earning a doctorate there in 1989. She previously served as the executive vice dean of Johns Hopkins School of Nursing.

Expressing gratitude for the Conways’ generosity, Dean Nolan said they are “really making the world a better place.”

She added that their support for Catholic University’s nursing school has “really made a big difference.” Nolan noted that Catholic University had about 60 students in each of its freshman, sophomore, junior and senior classes a few years ago, but aided by that financial support, they have a goal of having 125 nursing students in each of those classes, for a total of 500. The goal for the nursing school faculty is to have 30 faculty members there in the next three years.

“One of the contributing factors to a shortage of nurse is a national shortage of nursing faculty,” she said.

During the 2022-23 school year, the Conway School of Nursing included 356 undergraduate students and 120 graduate students and 20 full-time faculty members. The three guiding principles at Catholic University’s nursing school are human dignity, recognizing the value of every person; human freedom to exercise one’s conscience; and human flourishing, a belief in each individual’s life-long journey to achieve good.

“We feel very much that we are part of the healing ministry of Jesus,” Dean Nolan said.

She praised the nursing students there for their joyful spirit and for living their faith by serving others, including delivering food to the homeless, tutoring children and visiting the elderly. “They’re very service-oriented,” she said. “…I think what’s remarkable is the extent to which these students are focused on others.”

Expressing the importance of educating new nurses at a time of a national nursing shortage, Nolan said she hopes the graduates of the Conway School of Nursing “understand just how important they are to the entire health system. Nurses are the glue that holds everything together.”

She added, “Every additional nurse we prepare is an additional nurse to care for patients for a lifetime.”

William Conway, who visits Catholic University’s nursing school to talk with students there, knows personally the impact that nurses have, and also the impact of his support of nursing programs. He said that when he was in a hospital for surgery, “two nurses came in and said, Mr. Conway, I want to thank you for my scholarship.”

One day after the pinning ceremony at Catholic University’s nursing school, Conway said he hopes the graduates from those programs become “compassionate, competent nurses,” who stay in a profession where they are needed on the front lines to care for people.

“Each nurse in their time of nursing will deal with thousands of patients. It’s kind of a force multiplier,” he said. “…The need is great. I want the nurses to have a rewarding life.”

And the man whose Bedford Falls Foundation supports future nurses knows that is a wonderful life.