Dennis P. McAuliffe, known his whole life as Phil, entered Xavier on February 1, 1937 and graduated on January 27, 1941 as a Cadet Major. He served his class as Vice President in his sophomore and junior years and as president his senior year. After Xavier, he entered West Point, graduating a year early on D-Day, June 6, 1944. He spent the remainder of his career serving his country as both a witness to and a participant in its history.

McAuliffe began his army career as a 2nd Lieutenant in the European Theater in January 1945. In April of that year, he entered part of the Buchenwald complex where he saw, first hand, the horror and evil of the Holocaust, viewing thousands of Jewish bodies, mostly men, stacked in piles three to twelve feet high waiting for cremation. In 1945, after VE Day, he was stationed at Camp Swift, TX while awaiting transfer to the Pacific Theater, when he met his future wife Kathleen Bolton, a senior at the University of Texas, on a blind date. They were married in June 1946 and subsequently moved to Korea where their first child, daughter Carolyn, was born in 1948. During his 40-year career, he earned a master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, served in several different commands including four years on the Army staff at the Pentagon, and was appointed Executive Officer to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Earle Wheeler, in 1967. Along the way, he and Kathleen had two more children, Denny (1949) and Kathie (1957). Promoted to brigadier general in 1969, Phil was posted to Vietnam as the 1st Infantry Division’s Assistant Commander. After Vietnam, he served in the Supreme Headquarters of the Allied Powers Europe in Belgium, when he was promoted to major general and ultimately found himself back at the Pentagon as deputy to the Assistant Secretary of Defense, International Security Affairs.

In 1975 Phil received his third star (lieutenant general) and became Commander and Chief, U.S. Southern Command, headquartered in Panama during the contentious Panama Canal Treaty negotiations. He retired from the army when he was appointed to be the first Administrator of the Panama Canal Commission by President Jimmy Carter in 1979, a post he held for ten years.

McAuliffe left Panama in 1990 and he and Kathleen retired and moved to Alexandria, VA where he served as president of the World War II 89th Infantry Division Society. In 2002, they relocated to the Fairfax retirement community in Fort Belvoir, VA. Kathleen died on March 12, 2011 and Phil died just over a year later on July 31, 2012.

Xavier has always sought to form leaders for communities, the Church and the nation. Phil’s life was a remarkable example of living out Xavier’s mission. He was a true “Son of Xavier.”


McAuliffe in Panama, ca. 1980s



Each week we will be publishing the story of 2014 Xavier Hall of Fame Inductees. LTG Dennis P. McAuliffe, USA (Ret.) ’41 † will be recognized at Xavier’s Hall of Fame Dinner, which will take place November 7 at Pier Sixty at Chelsea Piers. For tickets and more information, register online or please contact Mrs. Helene Strong at 212-924-7900 x1654, or by email at strongh@xavierhs.org.