Above: Author Phil Klay in Keenan Commons and
Tom Kane '57 P'80 in the Arrupe Library.

Noted Speakers Visit Xavier

Students flooded Keenan Commons and the Arrupe Library on Thursday, March 30, when author Phil Klay and Xavier Hall of Famer Tom Kane ’57 P’80—the benefactor for whom Xavier’s Kane Building is named—visited 16th Street.

Klay, a former Marine and the author of Redeployment (a 2014 National Book Award winner and one of The New York Times Book Review’s 10 Best Books of 2014), came to Xavier at the invitation of Executive Vice President Dan Dougherty, his former Dean of Students at Regis High School. After speaking to a large crowd in Keenan Commons, he visited with students in the Soldiers' Stories English elective taught by Mary-Grace Gannon P'03 '07.

“For my seniors, it was fascinating to listen to Mr. Klay describe the extensive deliberation and revision that went into each story and the book as a whole,” Gannon said. “He said that some of the stories took him over two years to write and revise. Students gained valuable insight into the work that goes into writing.”

"Hearing Klay's ugly truths about the realities of war opened me up to the fact that we can never presume to know the true struggles of our neighbors until we hear the stories that they have to tell, especially our veterans," added Joseph Murgida '17. 

Over in the Arrupe Library, another sizable crowd gathered to hear Tom Kane, a former Marine and Vietnam veteran who was in town for a Marine Corps Dinner. Now based in Jupiter, Florida, Kane enjoyed a successful career on Wall Street; later, he and his family purchased Adare Manor, an 847-acre residential estate in Ireland, and converted it into a five-star resort. In 2002, 2009, and 2011, Adare Manor was voted the #1 golf resort in Europe. The former chairman of the Fordham University Board of Trustees, Kane is also the author of Come Fly With Me: Recollections of a Marine Fighter Pilot.

After his speech, Kane also visited the Soldiers’ Stories elective, and he and Klay later joined students for lunch in the Arrupe Library. Our thanks to both men for visiting 16th Street.