Biography

Zacheus J. Maher was the 17th president of SCU and served from 1921 to 1926. Much to the pleasure of alumni and the student body, Maher reinstated football at Santa Clara. However, he instituted many reforms--for example, athletes were no longer given special privileges, and all the players had to be fully enrolled at the university. The campus Maher inherited was in bad condition--buildings leaked, had poor ventilation, and were structurally unstable. Maher said there needed to be a complete overhaul, as the university could not successfully function with such out-of-date facilities. This desire for renovation caused Father Maher to fundraise amongst Santa Clara alumni, and these efforts were realized in the Alumni Science Hall, which is still a part of today’s campus. He also helped to create an endowment for the university by encouraging alumni to take out life insurance funds that would pay out to the university, as well as reaching out to members of the local Santa Clara community and inviting them to participate in lunches and tours of the campus. His theme for renewal was “Your College--My College--Everybody’s College,” and focused on the benefits that having a university imparted onto the greater Santa Clara community--namely, greater respect for women, civic pride, and nationalism. The economic benefits were also stressed, as campus construction would mean lots of spending. Father Maher proposed a fundraising campaign with a goal of raising half a million dollars in twelve days; this campaign was to conclude with homecoming and a performance of The Mission Play of Santa Clara by Martin Merle. Unfortunately, the goal was not met; a sum of only $100,000 was pledged, and a year after the campaign’s end, most of those pledges were still outstanding. Father Maher blamed the campaign’s failure on local merchants and anti-Catholic sentiments. Father Maher proceeded with his construction anyway, although he made many changes to his original plans due to lack of funds. By the time he left the presidency, he had already constructed six new mission-style buildings. The money to fund these buildings came from the sale of university-owned property that had been purchased by previous administrations, bequests from alumni, and the salvage of building materials from old buildings that were reused in new construction. During this time, the university also ended its high school program. The former grounds and buildings of the College of the Pacific were purchased, and high school students removed to that location after Christmas of 1925. Maher did not originally want to provide any financial support for the school, but finally agreed to assume one third of the costs, which amounted to approximately $50,000. He also made changes to the university’s curriculum; the law course was temporarily expanded into a four-year program, the pre-med program was reestablished, and the strict classical requisites were reintroduced into the Bachelor of Arts course. Maher strongly believed that Catholic education was completely different from secular education, and this was reflected in his administrative choices.

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