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Tampa Jesuit High School Picks New President

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By MARILYN BROWN, The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 28, 2007

TAMPA - The Jesuit High School of Tampa board of trustees has elected a New Orleans native as the school's next president.

The Rev. Richard C. Hermes, pastor at Immaculate Conception Church in New Orleans since March 2006, is expected to arrive in Tampa in late May and take the reins as president of Jesuit High in June.

Hermes, 43, is a graduate of Jesuit High School in Shreveport, La., a major influence in his career of teaching and ministering in Jesuit schools. He has bachelor's degrees in philosophy and classics from St. Louis University and a master's degree in classics from State University of New York in New York City. He also has a master of divinity from Westin Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge, Mass. His Licentiate in Sacred Scripture is from the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome and Jerusalem.

Hermes entered the priesthood in 1984 and was ordained in 1998. His 10 years on the faculty of Jesuit High in New Orleans included teaching theology, Latin and Greek, and serving as chaplain.

"I really discovered I had a kind of vocation within a vocation," he said Tuesday of his choice to pursue a Jesuit education. "As a priest, I had a strong call to education, especially with young people, to bringing the Gospel to young people."

Hermes will replace the Rev. Joseph F. Doyle, president of the school since 1996. He is the longest-serving president in the school's 108-year history.

"I asked to step down," Doyle said Tuesday. "I'm 71 and I just decided I don't have the energy anymore."

His next assignment will come from his superior in New Orleans, he said.

Reporter Marilyn Brown can be reached at (813) 259-8069 or mbrown@tampatrib.com.

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