Vocation led him to campus

By PAUL QUIRINI- | Comments: 0 | Leave a comment

Rev. Thomas Phelan has been all things to all people at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy during his 30 years there.

From his beginnings as resident Catholic chaplain in 1959 to his current positions -- senior adviser to the president, institute dean and historian, professor of history, and pastor of Christ Sun of Justice parish -- Father Phelan has managed to combine his love of history and art with his vocational duty to enhance the RPI community.

His efforts haven't gone unnoticed, as the Rensselaer County Historical Society recently presented the Thomas Phelan Endowed Lecture Series on "To The Manor Born: Three Generations of Van Rensselaer Patrons," a topic with which Father Phelan is very familiar. Two experts from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City spoke about the contributions of the Van Rensselaer family; Stephen Van Rensselaer II is RPI's founder.

In the background

Father Phelan isn't one who seeks attention, but he knows that his work and ministry at RPI have earned him some degree of fame.

"I prefer to be quiet, in the background and not grandstand. It's hard to say that 10,000 people recognize you, but a good percentage of people know who I am," he told The Evangelist.

Born in Rensselaer in 1925, Thomas Phelan was the oldest of seven children. His father was a physician who practiced in Albany and Rensselaer, but it was his mother from whom he inherited his appreciation of art.

"My mother could look at a piece of art and say, 'That's good,' and she'd be absolutely right, or, 'That's lousy,' and she'd be right again," he said.

Toward a vocation

A parishioner of St. John the Evangelist Church in Rensselaer, young Tom attended Christian Brothers Academy in Albany and then Holy Cross College. He earned a bachelor's degree in English in 1945, joined the Navy ROTC and served during World War II as a tactical radar officer on a destroyer in the Pacific fleet.

After World War II, he decided to enter the seminary. He didn't think about becoming a priest while in the ROTC, but he had given it some thought previously, and it seemed to be the right time to give the seminary a try.

His first impression of his fellow seminarians at Theological College at Catholic University in Washington, D.C., was that they were slightly insane.

"At first, I thought they were all crazy, getting up at 5 a.m.," Father Phelan said. But the early mornings didn't discourage him, and he was ordained in 1951 at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington.

On to Troy

During the early 1950s, Father Phelan served as assistant pastor at several parishes, including St. Paul's Church, Hancock; St. Vincent de Paul's, Albany; St. Francis de Sales, Herkimer; and St. Lawrence's, Troy. He also worked at Catholic Central High School in Troy as a teacher, director of the school of Christian social living and Catholic forum, and head of its building fund.

Father Phelan became chaplain of Guardian Angel School in Troy in 1959, the same year he came to RPI as resident Catholic chaplain. In those days, Mass was celebrated for Catholic students only once each month in a campus theater. The need for a permanent chapel grew, and RPI raised almost $500,000 to construct such a building.

BY 1968, Masses were celebrated in the new chapel, which doubled as a cultural center used for theater, music, dance and other events that gave RPI students more opportunities to experience the arts.

Father Phelan was appointed chairman of the diocesan Liturgical Commission's Department of Art and Architecture the following year, and he spent a year shortly thereafter as a student at Oxford University before returning to RPI as resident Catholic chaplain.

Changing role

In 1972, Father Phelan was asked to serve as dean of RPI's school of humanities and social studies. Being dean of such a school at RPI was an exciting job because there was much to be done in promoting liberal arts on campus.

"We knew we would always be a minority at RPI. We had professors who were good in research but in science and technology," Father Phelan said.

He served as dean of the school of humanities and social studies for 23 years. Since he wanted to continue working at RPI, the administration utilized his wisdom and experience by appointing him senior adviser to the president and institute dean and historian.

Historic interest

The history Father Phelan finds most interesting is 19th-century America, with an emphasis on studying the tools and objects produced by a society to better understand its characteristics.

He is glad to have spent so many years in Troy, which was "the earliest industrial town in the country," he said. "This area stood at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, and I'm just happy to have been in one of the best areas of the country to make such studies."

Although his academic and administrative work keeps him busy, Father Phelan continues to serve as pastor of Christ Sun of Justice parish and celebrates half of the Masses there. A mix of students and neighbors comes for Masses, which tend to be very crowded for Good Friday and Easter, and less crowded during the summer when students are home on break.

The history lover in Father Phelan often determines where he travels; he has visited England, France, Spain, Italy and Russia, and wants to see Hungary, the Czech Republic and eastern Turkey. He speaks a little bit of many languages and can read fairly well in them, but the language he has found the most difficult to read is Dutch.

Of all the work he's done as a professor, dean and adviser, Father Phelan said his vocation is what makes him effective in everything in which he's been involved at RPI.

"I think I do what I do better because I'm a priest," he said.

(04-15-99) [[In-content Ad]]