Jim Towey
Encyclopedia
Jim Towey served as Director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives
and as Assistant to President George W. Bush
from 2002 to May 2006. He served as president of Saint Vincent College
, a small Catholic university in Latrobe, Pennsylvania
from 2006 until stepping down on June 30, 2010. Towey currently serves as President and CEO of Ave Maria University in Florida.
in Jacksonville, Florida
in 1974 and went on to Florida State University
where he earned a Bachelor of Science
with high honors in 1978 and a Juris Doctor
in 1981.
Towey identifies as a Roman Catholic and is ostensibly a member of the Knights of Columbus
.
He served as the sixteenth President of Saint Vincent College
, Latrobe, Pennsylvania
, from July 1, 2006 until June 30, 2010. As President, Towey serves as the Chief Executive Officer of an educational institution that has been recognized by Forbes
magazine as one of "America’s Best Colleges".
Major accomplishments during the years of his presidency include record levels of applications, enrollment as well as new pledge commitments; three consecutive budget surpluses; and the initiation of the most expensive construction and renovation project in the college’s history. Towey has made a priority of recruiting minority and international students. He also created a new Office of Service Learning to provide opportunities for hundreds of Saint Vincent students to experience serving those in need. Towey also presided over as somewhat controversial reaccreditation of the college by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools in 2007. A frequent speaker to groups and organizations all over the United States, Towey has spoken or lectured at Harvard
, Yale
, Notre Dame
, Dartmouth
, Georgetown
, and Davidson
.
Towey, who served for four years as Assistant to the President of the United States and director of the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, was recognized by President George W. Bush
for his work to improve the lives of those in need. Because of his work with the poor and infirm, consistent with his conscience and the dictates of his faith in the face of legal and public challenges, the Cuban Association of the Order of Malta has awarded Towey the 2009 Tuitio Fidei Award.
At the White House, Towey served as a member of President George W. Bush’s senior staff and reported directly to him on church-state and religious liberty issues, policies promoting tax incentives for enhanced charitable giving, and the implementation of individual choice in drug treatment, mentoring, housing and other federal programs.
Prior to his work at the White House, Towey in 1996 founded Aging with Dignity
, a national non-profit organization to help individuals and their families plan for and receive appropriate care during times of serious illness. He created the document, Five Wishes
, the most widely used advance directive in America with over 13 million copies in circulation.
Towey served in the administration of Florida Governor Lawton Chiles
who brought him to Miami in 1991 as District Director of the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services where he presided during the time of Hurricane Andrew
. He later became Secretary of the 40,000 employee agency.
Towey represented the late Mother Teresa
on legal matters in the United States and Canada for 12 years (from 1985 until her death) and traveled with her on numerous occasions. He served nearly two years as a full-time volunteer in Mexico
in one of Mother Teresa's missions and in her Washington, D.C. home for people suffering from AIDS
. For the past three years he has returned to Calcutta with Saint Vincent College students to work in her missions.
A 1978 graduate of the Florida State University where he earned a Bachelor of Science Degree with high honors, Towey earned a Juris Doctor degree from the Florida State University College of Law
in 1981.
He has been honored for his public service including six honorary doctoral degrees, the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice Papal Cross from Pope John Paul II, the Omicron Delta Kappa Grad Made Good Award from Florida State University, and the Archbishop John Carroll Award from the Archdiocese of Miami
. He is a member of the Knights of Columbus. During his career, Towey has appeared as a guest on multiple occasions on 60 Minutes
and the NBC Today Show, as well as on Fox News Sunday
, Good Morning America
, and other major cable and network programs. He has been published in The Washington Post
, USA Today
, The Wall Street Journal
, and The Miami Herald
.
Towey grew up in Jacksonville, Florida
. He and his wife, Mary Towey, have five children: James Marion, Joseph Marius, Maximilian Marian, John Mariano and Marie Therese.
of Calcutta. As her attorney, he helped to ensure people were not using Mother Teresa's name to raise money without her permission, assisted in establishing AIDS clinics and homeless shelters, and coordinated immigration matters for her nuns. In the 1980s Towey lived as a full-time volunteer in Mother Teresa's home for people with AIDS
in Washington, D.C.
Towey has said that the experience of working with Mother Teresa motivated him to establish the non-profit organization Aging with Dignity
in 1996. The Five Wishes
booklet and additional resources on CD help people express how they want to be treated if they are seriously ill and unable to speak for themselves. Over 12 million copies of the group's Five Wishes document, called "the living will with a heart and soul", have been distributed worldwide by more than 15,000 organizations.
During his 2002 - 2006 service as Faith Czar, (the informal name for Towey's White House position of Director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives
), Towey decried "militant secularism"; the view that religious considerations should be excluded from government affairs and public education.
Towey also served as senior adviser to U.S. Sen. Mark Hatfield
(R-Oregon) for ten years, and as director of Florida's health and human services agency under Gov. Lawton Chiles
(D).
, a small Catholic school in Pennsylvania, on 1 July 2006.
During Towey's tenure as President, St. Vincent College made the top ten list of conservative colleges in the United States for the first time. However, Towey has faced some difficulties in his relationships with faculty members at St. Vincent. In April, 2008, he attributed much of the dissension to a clash of cultures with the predominantly Benedictine monk faculty, who were not accustomed to rapid change, and to the fact that he was "new to academia".
Towey attracted two high-profile commencement speakers to St. Vincent: President George W. Bush in 2007 and Mike Tomlin, coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2008. Towey stepped down as President on June 30, 2010.
diocese, claiming that he alone was responsible for the content on the computer. When made aware of the witness, Towey and Saint Vincent officials did not notify Gruber or the police. The State Police discovered the witness from another official, and after investigating the claim, found it to be true and credible.
In late 2010 Gruber dropped his defamation lawsuit against college and archabbey officials. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Archabbot Douglas Nowicki (Fr. Gruber's Benedictine superior) stated that during a deposition Gruber "finally had to confront his egregious misconduct." An attorney for the college has stated that Gruber admitted under oath that he created pornographic materials on a college computer, including "grossly inappropriate depictions of himself", and that when Father Gruber was confronted with pornographic photographs during the deposition he admitted creating and e-mailing the images. According to Father Gruber's attorney the evidence at deposition has been taken "completely out of context."
administration was attempting to cut costs for the medical treatment of veterans by providing them with a "Death Book" which pressured the veterans to "forgo critical care". In an appearance on Fox News Sunday television show, Towey charged that the booklet was authored by an advocate of assisted suicide, and that it was being used to give "end of life" counseling to soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. On the show, Tammy Duckworth
, Assistant Secretary for the Veteran's Administration, responded that printed copies of the booklet had been pulled from the shelves in 2007 and that the Obama administration was revising it. Duckworth also mentioned that "Towey has a competing book on end-of-life discussions that veterans can purchase for $5".
from Nicholas Healy on July 1st, 2011. The unanimous decision was made on February 8, 2011 at the regularly scheduled Board of Trustees meeting.
on September 5, 2000, the third anniversary of the death of Mother Teresa.
White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives
The White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, formerly the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives is an office within the White House Office that is part of the Executive Office of the President of the United States.-Under George W. Bush:OFBCI was...
and as Assistant to President George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
from 2002 to May 2006. He served as president of Saint Vincent College
Saint Vincent College
Saint Vincent College is a four-year, coeducational, Roman Catholic, Benedictine, liberal arts college in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, located about 40 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. It was founded in 1846 by Boniface Wimmer, a monk from Bavaria, Germany. It was the first Benedictine monastery in the...
, a small Catholic university in Latrobe, Pennsylvania
Latrobe, Pennsylvania
Latrobe is a city in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania in the United States, approximately southeast of Pittsburgh.The city population was 7,634 as of the 2000 census . It is located near the Pennsylvania's scenic Chestnut Ridge. Latrobe was incorporated as a borough in 1854, and as a city in 1999...
from 2006 until stepping down on June 30, 2010. Towey currently serves as President and CEO of Ave Maria University in Florida.
Background and personal life
Towey graduated from Bishop Kenny High SchoolBishop Kenny High School
Bishop Kenny High School is a private, college-preparatory, coeducational Catholic high school in Jacksonville, Florida. It is located in and administered by the Roman Catholic Diocese of St. Augustine...
in Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Florida in terms of both population and land area, and the largest city by area in the contiguous United States. It is the county seat of Duval County, with which the city government consolidated in 1968...
in 1974 and went on to Florida State University
Florida State University
The Florida State University is a space-grant and sea-grant public university located in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a comprehensive doctoral research university with medical programs and significant research activity as determined by the Carnegie Foundation...
where he earned a Bachelor of Science
Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...
with high honors in 1978 and a Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor is a professional doctorate and first professional graduate degree in law.The degree was first awarded by Harvard University in the United States in the late 19th century and was created as a modern version of the old European doctor of law degree Juris Doctor (see etymology and...
in 1981.
Towey identifies as a Roman Catholic and is ostensibly a member of the Knights of Columbus
Knights of Columbus
The Knights of Columbus is the world's largest Catholic fraternal service organization. Founded in the United States in 1882, it is named in honor of Christopher Columbus....
.
He served as the sixteenth President of Saint Vincent College
Saint Vincent College
Saint Vincent College is a four-year, coeducational, Roman Catholic, Benedictine, liberal arts college in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, located about 40 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. It was founded in 1846 by Boniface Wimmer, a monk from Bavaria, Germany. It was the first Benedictine monastery in the...
, Latrobe, Pennsylvania
Latrobe, Pennsylvania
Latrobe is a city in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania in the United States, approximately southeast of Pittsburgh.The city population was 7,634 as of the 2000 census . It is located near the Pennsylvania's scenic Chestnut Ridge. Latrobe was incorporated as a borough in 1854, and as a city in 1999...
, from July 1, 2006 until June 30, 2010. As President, Towey serves as the Chief Executive Officer of an educational institution that has been recognized by Forbes
Forbes
Forbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...
magazine as one of "America’s Best Colleges".
Major accomplishments during the years of his presidency include record levels of applications, enrollment as well as new pledge commitments; three consecutive budget surpluses; and the initiation of the most expensive construction and renovation project in the college’s history. Towey has made a priority of recruiting minority and international students. He also created a new Office of Service Learning to provide opportunities for hundreds of Saint Vincent students to experience serving those in need. Towey also presided over as somewhat controversial reaccreditation of the college by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools in 2007. A frequent speaker to groups and organizations all over the United States, Towey has spoken or lectured at Harvard
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, Yale
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
, Notre Dame
University of Notre Dame
The University of Notre Dame du Lac is a Catholic research university located in Notre Dame, an unincorporated community north of the city of South Bend, in St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States...
, Dartmouth
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
, Georgetown
Georgetown University
Georgetown University is a private, Jesuit, research university whose main campus is in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic university in the United States...
, and Davidson
Davidson College
Davidson College is a private liberal arts college in Davidson, North Carolina. The college has graduated 23 Rhodes Scholars and is consistently ranked in the top ten liberal arts colleges in the country by U.S. News and World Report magazine, although it has recently dropped to 11th in U.S. News...
.
Towey, who served for four years as Assistant to the President of the United States and director of the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, was recognized by President George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
for his work to improve the lives of those in need. Because of his work with the poor and infirm, consistent with his conscience and the dictates of his faith in the face of legal and public challenges, the Cuban Association of the Order of Malta has awarded Towey the 2009 Tuitio Fidei Award.
At the White House, Towey served as a member of President George W. Bush’s senior staff and reported directly to him on church-state and religious liberty issues, policies promoting tax incentives for enhanced charitable giving, and the implementation of individual choice in drug treatment, mentoring, housing and other federal programs.
Prior to his work at the White House, Towey in 1996 founded Aging with Dignity
Aging with Dignity
Aging with Dignity is a national non-profit organization based in Tallahassee, Florida. The stated mission of Aging with Dignity is to "honor the God-given human dignity of the most vulnerable among us." The primary focus of Aging with Dignity is to improve end-of-life care by encouraging people...
, a national non-profit organization to help individuals and their families plan for and receive appropriate care during times of serious illness. He created the document, Five Wishes
Five Wishes
Five Wishes is a national advance directive created by the non-profit organization Aging with Dignity. It has been described as the "living will with a heart and soul."-History:...
, the most widely used advance directive in America with over 13 million copies in circulation.
Towey served in the administration of Florida Governor Lawton Chiles
Lawton Chiles
Lawton Mainor Chiles, Jr. was an American politician from the US state of Florida. In a career spanning four decades, Chiles, a Democrat who never lost an election, served in the Florida House of Representatives , the Florida State Senate , the United States Senate , and as the 41st Governor of...
who brought him to Miami in 1991 as District Director of the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services where he presided during the time of Hurricane Andrew
Hurricane Andrew
Hurricane Andrew was the third Category 5 hurricane to make landfall in the United States, after the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 and Hurricane Camille in 1969. Andrew was the first named storm and only major hurricane of the otherwise inactive 1992 Atlantic hurricane season...
. He later became Secretary of the 40,000 employee agency.
Towey represented the late Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa , born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu , was a Roman Catholic nun of Albanian ethnicity and Indian citizenship, who founded the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, India, in 1950...
on legal matters in the United States and Canada for 12 years (from 1985 until her death) and traveled with her on numerous occasions. He served nearly two years as a full-time volunteer in Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
in one of Mother Teresa's missions and in her Washington, D.C. home for people suffering from AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
. For the past three years he has returned to Calcutta with Saint Vincent College students to work in her missions.
A 1978 graduate of the Florida State University where he earned a Bachelor of Science Degree with high honors, Towey earned a Juris Doctor degree from the Florida State University College of Law
Florida State University College of Law
Florida State University College of Law is the law school of Florida State University in Tallahassee. The law school's highly accomplished and accessible law faculty delivers a program that has an interdisciplinary orientation designed to produce well-rounded and effective lawyers.The law school...
in 1981.
He has been honored for his public service including six honorary doctoral degrees, the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice Papal Cross from Pope John Paul II, the Omicron Delta Kappa Grad Made Good Award from Florida State University, and the Archbishop John Carroll Award from the Archdiocese of Miami
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Miami
The Archdiocese of Miami is a particular church of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States of America. Its ecclesiastic territory includes Broward, Miami-Dade, and Monroe counties in the U.S. state of Florida. The archdiocese is the metropolitan see for the Ecclesiastical Province of Miami,...
. He is a member of the Knights of Columbus. During his career, Towey has appeared as a guest on multiple occasions on 60 Minutes
60 Minutes
60 Minutes is an American television news magazine, which has run on CBS since 1968. The program was created by producer Don Hewitt who set it apart by using a unique style of reporter-centered investigation....
and the NBC Today Show, as well as on Fox News Sunday
Fox News Sunday
Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace is a public affairs program on the Fox network, hosted by Chris Wallace and airing on Sunday mornings. The show began on April 28, 1996, which predated the launch of Fox News Channel, and usually talks about items similar to Sunday morning talk shows...
, Good Morning America
Good Morning America
Good Morning America is an American morning news and talk show that is broadcast on the ABC television network; it debuted on November 3, 1975. The weekday program airs for two hours; a third hour aired between 2007 and 2008 exclusively on ABC News Now...
, and other major cable and network programs. He has been published in The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
, USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
, The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
, and The Miami Herald
The Miami Herald
The Miami Herald is a daily newspaper owned by The McClatchy Company headquartered on Biscayne Bay in the Omni district of Downtown Miami, Florida, United States...
.
Towey grew up in Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Florida in terms of both population and land area, and the largest city by area in the contiguous United States. It is the county seat of Duval County, with which the city government consolidated in 1968...
. He and his wife, Mary Towey, have five children: James Marion, Joseph Marius, Maximilian Marian, John Mariano and Marie Therese.
Career
Prior to his 2002 - 2006 White House service, Towey was employed for 12 years as a U.S. legal counsel to Mother TeresaMother Teresa
Mother Teresa , born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu , was a Roman Catholic nun of Albanian ethnicity and Indian citizenship, who founded the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, India, in 1950...
of Calcutta. As her attorney, he helped to ensure people were not using Mother Teresa's name to raise money without her permission, assisted in establishing AIDS clinics and homeless shelters, and coordinated immigration matters for her nuns. In the 1980s Towey lived as a full-time volunteer in Mother Teresa's home for people with AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
in Washington, D.C.
Towey has said that the experience of working with Mother Teresa motivated him to establish the non-profit organization Aging with Dignity
Aging with Dignity
Aging with Dignity is a national non-profit organization based in Tallahassee, Florida. The stated mission of Aging with Dignity is to "honor the God-given human dignity of the most vulnerable among us." The primary focus of Aging with Dignity is to improve end-of-life care by encouraging people...
in 1996. The Five Wishes
Five Wishes
Five Wishes is a national advance directive created by the non-profit organization Aging with Dignity. It has been described as the "living will with a heart and soul."-History:...
booklet and additional resources on CD help people express how they want to be treated if they are seriously ill and unable to speak for themselves. Over 12 million copies of the group's Five Wishes document, called "the living will with a heart and soul", have been distributed worldwide by more than 15,000 organizations.
During his 2002 - 2006 service as Faith Czar, (the informal name for Towey's White House position of Director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives
White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives
The White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, formerly the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives is an office within the White House Office that is part of the Executive Office of the President of the United States.-Under George W. Bush:OFBCI was...
), Towey decried "militant secularism"; the view that religious considerations should be excluded from government affairs and public education.
Towey also served as senior adviser to U.S. Sen. Mark Hatfield
Mark Hatfield
Mark Odom Hatfield was an American politician and educator from the state of Oregon. A Republican, he served for 30 years as a United States Senator from Oregon, and also as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee...
(R-Oregon) for ten years, and as director of Florida's health and human services agency under Gov. Lawton Chiles
Lawton Chiles
Lawton Mainor Chiles, Jr. was an American politician from the US state of Florida. In a career spanning four decades, Chiles, a Democrat who never lost an election, served in the Florida House of Representatives , the Florida State Senate , the United States Senate , and as the 41st Governor of...
(D).
Saint Vincent College (2006 - 2010)
Towey became the sixteenth President of Saint Vincent CollegeSaint Vincent College
Saint Vincent College is a four-year, coeducational, Roman Catholic, Benedictine, liberal arts college in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, located about 40 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. It was founded in 1846 by Boniface Wimmer, a monk from Bavaria, Germany. It was the first Benedictine monastery in the...
, a small Catholic school in Pennsylvania, on 1 July 2006.
During Towey's tenure as President, St. Vincent College made the top ten list of conservative colleges in the United States for the first time. However, Towey has faced some difficulties in his relationships with faculty members at St. Vincent. In April, 2008, he attributed much of the dissension to a clash of cultures with the predominantly Benedictine monk faculty, who were not accustomed to rapid change, and to the fact that he was "new to academia".
Towey attracted two high-profile commencement speakers to St. Vincent: President George W. Bush in 2007 and Mike Tomlin, coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2008. Towey stepped down as President on June 30, 2010.
Fr. Mark Gruber controversy
In November 2009 reports began emerging in which Towey accused a Saint Vincent College priest/professor, Fr. Mark Gruber, of sexual misconduct. In August 2009, local police were summoned to campus to investigate alleged instances of child pornography found on an open access computer outside Fr. Gruber's office. The police closed the case noting that, in addition to the open access to the computer, there was no evidence a crime had been committed - images of nude men were found, but no subjects could be identified as being under 18. Additionally, Inside Higher Ed suggests that Fr. Gruber's ongoing criticism of Saint Vincent's administration may have led Towey and Archabbot Nowicki to pursue unfounded allegations Additionally, in December, a man came forward to the Youngstown, OhioYoungstown, Ohio
Youngstown is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Mahoning County; it also extends into Trumbull County. The municipality is situated on the Mahoning River, approximately southeast of Cleveland and northwest of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania...
diocese, claiming that he alone was responsible for the content on the computer. When made aware of the witness, Towey and Saint Vincent officials did not notify Gruber or the police. The State Police discovered the witness from another official, and after investigating the claim, found it to be true and credible.
In late 2010 Gruber dropped his defamation lawsuit against college and archabbey officials. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Archabbot Douglas Nowicki (Fr. Gruber's Benedictine superior) stated that during a deposition Gruber "finally had to confront his egregious misconduct." An attorney for the college has stated that Gruber admitted under oath that he created pornographic materials on a college computer, including "grossly inappropriate depictions of himself", and that when Father Gruber was confronted with pornographic photographs during the deposition he admitted creating and e-mailing the images. According to Father Gruber's attorney the evidence at deposition has been taken "completely out of context."
"Death book" op-ed
In an August 2009 op-ed Towey argued that the ObamaBarack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
administration was attempting to cut costs for the medical treatment of veterans by providing them with a "Death Book" which pressured the veterans to "forgo critical care". In an appearance on Fox News Sunday television show, Towey charged that the booklet was authored by an advocate of assisted suicide, and that it was being used to give "end of life" counseling to soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. On the show, Tammy Duckworth
Tammy Duckworth
Ladda Tammy Duckworth was formerly Assistant Secretary for Public and Intergovernmental Affairs in the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, and formerly the director of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs. Duckworth is an Iraq War veteran and former U.S...
, Assistant Secretary for the Veteran's Administration, responded that printed copies of the booklet had been pulled from the shelves in 2007 and that the Obama administration was revising it. Duckworth also mentioned that "Towey has a competing book on end-of-life discussions that veterans can purchase for $5".
Ave Maria University
Towey will assume the role of President of Ave Maria UniversityAve Maria University
Ave Maria University or AMU is a private Catholic university in southwest Florida, United States, founded in 2003. The university moved to its permanent campus, situated in the planned town of Ave Maria, east of Naples, Florida, in August 2007...
from Nicholas Healy on July 1st, 2011. The unanimous decision was made on February 8, 2011 at the regularly scheduled Board of Trustees meeting.
Awards
He received the Omicron Delta Kappa Award from Florida State University, Regnum Dei Award from the Archdiocese of Miami, and was awarded the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice Cross by Pope John Paul IIPope John Paul II
Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...
on September 5, 2000, the third anniversary of the death of Mother Teresa.
See also
- White House Office of Faith-Based and Community InitiativesWhite House Office of Faith-Based and Community InitiativesThe White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, formerly the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives is an office within the White House Office that is part of the Executive Office of the President of the United States.-Under George W. Bush:OFBCI was...