October 30, 2023
Very Rev. Urban Voll, O.P. ’45, ’97Hon. remembered with scholarship, website
Mark Voll ’77 remembers his uncle, Very Rev. Urban Voll, O.P. ’45, ’97Hon., with equal parts fondness and admiration.
“He was a great person and a brilliant scholar of theology and philosophy,” said Voll, a member of the Providence College Board of Trustees.
Father Voll, who taught at PC and other colleges for more than 40 years, died in 2021. To honor his legacy and impact, Voll and his wife, Raymonde, established the Rev. Urban Voll, O.P. ’45 Endowed Scholarship Fund. Concurrently, Voll created a digital tribute and archive of Father Voll’s scholarly works at urbanvoll.com.
“I wanted to share his gift, especially so students who are awarded the scholarship can learn about my uncle’s life,” Voll said.
A Syracuse, New York, native, Father Voll earned a PC bachelor’s degree in 1945, participating in the Guzman Hall pre-ecclesiastical program. He joined the Order of Preachers in 1942 and was ordained a priest in 1949.
Father Voll began a two-year assignment teaching theology and English at PC in 1950. He returned to the college as a faculty member from 1984-1990, then he served as prior of PC’s St. Thomas Aquinas Priory from 1990-93.
He moved to New York City during service as prior provincial of the Dominican Province of St. Joseph from 1993-97, then returned to live at the PC priory until declining health necessitated a move to St. Patrick’s Manor in Framingham, Massachusetts, where he died on January 24, 2021.
Father Voll was a member of the Board of Trustees from 1992-1997 and was a member of the PC Corporation from 1972-1988, concurrent with his service as prior provincial. The college awarded him an honorary doctorate at the conclusion of his terms on the board and corporation in 1997.
“I would visit with him whenever I came to Providence,” said Mark Voll, who served on the School of Business Advisory Council before being named a trustee in 2019. “He was a great conversationalist and it seemed like he knew something about everything. He loved being part of the PC Dominican community.”
Voll recalled memories of family vacations on the Delaware Shore, especially in the 1960s and late 1970s, when Father Voll had assignments in and around Washington, D.C.
“He would run into the water for a swim and an hour later he would come out of the ocean,” Voll said. “I know he also spent a lot of time in the pool at PC. He loved the water.”
Creating this website was a labor of love for Voll, who has had a long career as a finance executive in the technology industry and recently moved to Delaware after 38 years living in the San Francisco Bay Area.
“He was a scholar in every sense of the word and a teacher in every sense of the word,” Voll said, “and his contributions to Providence College, where he began and ended his priestly vocation, were immense and enduring.”
