Bygone DePaul is a series highlighting DePaul’s campus and how it has changed through the years.
Fr. John Cortelyou became the eighth president of DePaul University in 1964. Born in 1914, Fr. Cortelyou was ordained in 1940 and received his doctorate in 1949. He was the first DePaul president not to hold a doctoral degree in theology; instead, his degree was in biology. This education affected his outlook as President. His presidency lasted from 1964 to 1981. Under Fr. Cortelyou, the University continued to strive towards academic excellence. During his Presidency DePaul’s first doctoral programs in Biology, Philosophy and Psychology were established. DePaul also became the first Catholic university to change the standard undergraduate Catholic education by adding the study of existentialism and phenomenology to its philosophy program. At the same time, “DePaul College” was founded, which was an academic unit that for the first time required all students to take core curriculum classes. A few years later, in 1967, DePaul transferred from the semester system to the quarter system. In 1968, DePaul Academy, a high school for boys, closed and its building transferred to DePaul and became Byrne Hall. In 1972, DePaul established the School for New Learning which provided education to adult students. In 1978, it acquired the Goodman School of Drama (now the Theatre School at DePaul) which made DePaul one of the leading schools of drama in the United States.
This was also a time of physical growth for the university. Fr. Cortelyou completed the ambitious building projects that Fr. O’Malley had begun with his “Program for Greatness” campaign. These buildings included the Schmitt Academic Center (built for library and classroom space) and DePaul’s first residence hall, Clifton Hall. Fr. Cortelyou also acquired another building in the Loop at 23 E. Jackson Blvd. In 1976 and 1977, DePaul purchased McCormick Theological Seminary which was located just to the East of the el tracks on Fullerton. This purchase dramatically enlarged DePaul’s campus.
Fr. Cortelyou’s presidency was a time of extreme expansion and change for DePaul. It was not without its controversy. As DePaul bought more and more property in Lincoln Park, residents worried that they would be forced out of their longtime homes due to gentrification. Fr. Cortelyou, on the other hand, stated that DePaul brought stabilization to a neighborhood that was in danger of “going down”. Regardless of the role DePaul played in the gentrification of the neighborhood, by the time Fr. Cortelyou retired in 1981 DePaul University had an enrollment of 13,356 which was made up of 18% minority students, the second largest enrollment of minorities of any private school in Illinois. When Fr. Cortelyou retired, DePaul University was in its 84th year and offered over 50 undergraduate programs, 47 masters programs, 3 doctoral programs, and had over 60,000 alumni.
Contact DePaul’s University Archives for more information.