Outdoor classroom dedicated to Pat MacKay, Ph.D. ’20Hon.
An outdoor classroom and laboratory behind the Science Complex was dedicated in September 2024 in honor of Francis “Pat” MacKay, Ph.D. ’20Hon., an associate professor of chemistry, college administrator, and co-founder of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Scholars Program,
who died in 2019.
College President Rev. Kenneth R. Sicard, O.P. ’78, ’82G blessed the classroom space under sunny skies. The classroom overlooks a bioswale, a rain garden with flowers and plants designed to absorb and filter stormwater runoff.
A reflection was presented by John Breen, Ph.D. ’81, professor of chemistry, who was a student of
Dr. MacKay and later taught with him on the chemistry faculty.
Dr. MacKay’s wife, Jacqueline Kiernan MacKay, director of the Parent and Family Program, read from remarks that Dr. MacKay wrote when stepping down as an administrator to return to teaching:
“No, I am not going back to teaching — I am going forward to teaching, the activity we exist for,
whether it is done in the classroom or in its many settings outside of the classroom. How incredibly privileged and fortunate we are to be in a position to help students discover the power of their minds and to show them places that with their minds they can go, where they never dreamed of going.”
A reception followed in the Fiondella Great Room of the Ruane Center for the Humanities.
Dr. MacKay, who was hired to teach chemistry at PC in 1958, was a faculty member and administrator for more than 50 years. He served as department chair, president of the Faculty Senate, and as vice president for academic administration, during which time he established the position of dean of minority students and office of multicultural affairs.
In 1968, following the assassination of Dr. King, Dr. MacKay teamed with two faculty members to establish a scholarship fund with a goal of making it possible for more Black students to attend PC. Their efforts led to the establishment of the MLK Scholars Program, which has awarded more than 700 scholarships to students of color.
Dr. MacKay was awarded an honorary doctor of science degree posthumously in 2020.
