Loyola Blakefield honor turns into family affair

TOWSON – Ryan McCarthy, a senior at Loyola Blakefield, was initially concerned when he was called the morning of April 16 to the office of Anthony Day, the school’s principal and interim president.

McCarthy, who will head to Marquette University in the fall, wasn’t in trouble. Day just wanted to give him a last-minute task, introducing his father, William J. McCarthy Jr., April 17 as the 2013 recipient of the Rev. Joseph M. Kelley, S.J. Medal, the highest honor given to an alumnus of the Jesuit school for boys.

Ryan nailed the assignment, as he shared with classmates, alumni and guests, including his mother, Maria, words his father, the executive director of Catholic Charities of Baltimore, has ingrained in him: “Your education and job don’t define who you are; your passions do.”

His father, a member of the Class of 1979, serves as a trustee of several Catholic institutions, including Loyola Blakefield and Maryvale Preparatory School, where his late daughter, Erinn, who died in 2007, is honored as a member of the Class of 2010.

The Kelley Medal honors a Jesuit priest who taught physics and mathematics at Loyola Blakefield for nearly 40 years.

Past recipients range from Cardinal J. Francis Stafford (Class of 1950), to sports broadcasters Jim McKay (‘39) and Vince Bagli (‘44), to Judge Robert E. Cahill Sr. (‘49), whose son, Dan (‘81) was among those who made remarks.

“Bill McCarthy,” Dan Cahill said, citing the founder of the Jesuits, “is the embodiment of what St. Ignatius Loyola called ‘a man for others.’ “