Jeremiah J. Callahan
| Rev. Jeremiah J. Callahan, C.S.Sp. | |
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| Fifth President of Duquesne University of the Holy Ghost |
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In office 1931–1940 |
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| Preceded by | Rev. Martin A. Hehir |
| Succeeded by | Rev. Raymond V. Kirk |
| Personal details | |
| Born | January 11, 1878 Bay City, Michigan |
| Died | October 11, 1969 (aged 91) |
| Alma mater | Pittsburgh Catholic College St. Vincent's Seminary Holy Ghost Apostolic College Pontifical Gregorian University |
Jeremiah Joseph Callahan, C.S.Sp. (January 11, 1878 – October 11, 1969) was a Roman Catholic priest and the fifth president of Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, from 1931 until 1940.
Jeremiah Callahan was born in Michigan in 1878. He was a graduate of the Duquesne University Prep School, and of the university itself, though at the time of his graduation in 1897 it was still known as the Pittsburgh Catholic College. After his graduation, he studied for the priesthood at St. Vincent's Seminary in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. His post-graduate work included study at the Holy Ghost Apostolic College (now Holy Ghost Preparatory School) in Cornwall Heights, Pennsylvania, and the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. After his ordination in 1904, he taught languages for a year at Duquesne University, was briefly appointed an instructor of philosophy and theology at the Ferndale Holy Ghost Seminary in Norwalk, Connecticut, and then served as the pastor of a church in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, for seven years. After that assignment, he was appointed head of the Holy Ghost Apostolic College in 1916, a role he filled for fifteen years.
Callahan formally succeeded Martin Hehir as president of Duquesne University on January 4, 1931. He promptly greeted a throng of newspaper reporters by explaining his personal critique of Einstein's theory of relativity. (Callahan was an academic who specialized in Euclidean geometry. His book Euclid or Einstein? A Proof of the Parallel Theory and a Critique of Metageometry, which claimed to have "solved the problem [of geometric trisection of the angle] which has baffled mathematicians for 2000 years", provoked interest—and dispute—in the field of mathematics at the time.) Inaugural ceremonies were held in Oakland's Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall on April 30, 1931. In his inaugural address, he set forth a theory of education that was very different from that of his predecessor. Hehir had taken a college that focused on a classical approach to education, surveyed the needs of the Catholic immigrant community in Pittsburgh, and transformed Duquesne University into a school with an emphasis on occupational training and practicality in curriculum. Callahan, on the other hand, believed that liberal education should "lead to the possession of manners and the mental attitude of a gentleman, the complete and perfectly rounded out man of the world".
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