In Memoriam: Hugh F. Lena, Ph.D.
First and longest-serving provost at Providence College
By Vicki-Ann Downing ’21G
Hugh F. Lena III, Ph.D. ’20Hon., the first provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at Providence College, a professor of sociology, and an integral part of the college’s academic and administrative community for 50 years, died on Saturday, January 4, 2025, following a brief illness. He was 76.
“Hugh Lena exemplified the best of Providence College, and he lived a life characterized by selfless service to others,” said Rev. Kenneth R. Sicard, O.P. ’78, ’82G, the college’s president, who worked side-by-side with Dr. Lena on PC’s senior leadership team for more than 15 years.
“His fidelity to the college’s mission and core ideals was unshakable, providing the foundation for the decisions he made and the vision he shaped. In all aspects of his life — his work, his service to the poor and marginalized, and his commitment to the family he cherished — Hugh was a humble, principled vessel of God’s love. Providence College is a vastly better place for his leadership and his inspirational example.”
A funeral Mass for Dr. Lena will be celebrated on campus in St. Dominic Chapel on Friday, January 10, at 10 a.m.
Watch the funeral Mass
Father Sicard granted Dr. Lena provost emeritus status after he stepped down from his role as provost on June 30, 2020. He was awarded an honorary doctor of higher education degree at the college’s 2020 commencement ceremony. Dr. Lena spent the 2021-2022 academic year as a fellow in the Inspired Leadership Initiative at the University of Notre Dame.
With a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Notre Dame and a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Connecticut, Dr. Lena joined the PC faculty as assistant professor in 1974 and was promoted to professor in 1993. For 16 years, he was the college’s chief academic officer, serving as vice president for academic affairs from 2004-2009 and as provost and senior vice president from 2009-2019.
Dr. Lena was “kind, down-to-earth, and always had a story,” said Sylvia Maxfield, Ph.D., interim provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, professor of finance, and former dean of the School of Business.
“This earned him the affection of faculty and staff and was the recipe for one of the longest-serving tenures as vice president for academic administration that I know of,” Maxfield said. “He taught me that humility and good humor are as important in higher education leadership as ‘getting things done.’”
Richard Grace, Ph.D. ’62, ’17Hon., emeritus professor history, said Dr. Lena was a devoted advocate of faculty development, encouraging professors in teaching and in the promotion of scholarship and publication.
“Hugh was notable for many reasons, among them his consistent composure. He spent much of his life in the Faculty Senate, either as a senator or as a representative of the administration, and I never saw him lose his temper,” Grace said. “He was a model of good sense and diplomacy. He was a good negotiator because of his regularly even temperament.
“Although Hugh was the highest academic officer of the college, he always behaved in keeping with his own rise from the ranks of the faculty,” Grace said. “There was nothing lofty about his demeanor. He enjoyed great respect among the professors with whom he worked, and that was because of the respect that he showed for them.”
Grace said it was a pleasure to talk with Dr. Lena because of his breadth of interests and his readiness to hear what the other had to say.
During his time as an administrator, Dr. Lena championed the process that linked faculty tenure with promotion and introduced a faculty post-tenure review system. He shepherded the introduction of a revamped core curriculum and a fourth-semester colloquium to the Development of Western Civilization Program. Even as an administrator, he taught courses in sociology, the Liberal Arts Honors Program, and the MBA Program.
In 2013, Dr. Lena was instrumental in establishing the Innovation and Creativity Suite in the new Ruane Center for Humanities as a space to foster collaboration, leading to evidence-based decision making and continuous improvement.
“The Innovation and Creativity Suite is intended to serve as a retreat space where groups of faculty, students, and staff can come together to think, discuss, plan, and innovate in a collaborative environment,” Dr. Lena said.
The innovation and creativity suite was dedicated in his honor at a ceremony in January 2022.
A 1997 article in the student newspaper, The Cowl, described Dr. Lena’s involvement in the Feinstein Institute for Public Service, where he team-taught a course, AIDS Community and the Policy of Risk. With students, he spent spring break volunteering with AIDS patients at a New Jersey hospice, and he continued that service at Sunrise House in Providence, helping older adults living with HIV.
Dr. Lena, the son of a physician, studied organizational theory and medical sociology in his Ph.D. program. He told The Cowl that where he once taught about HIV-AIDS from books, “there was no human face until I started doing service, which is very rewarding.”
He also volunteered at Mary House, the soup kitchen at St. Patrick’s Church in Providence, and served on the Institutional Review Board at Miriam Hospital and as a board member at Providence Community Health Centers. As provost and after his tenure, he served as an evaluator for the New England Commission of Higher Education, an accreditor of colleges and universities.
Dr. Lena enjoyed The New York Times crossword, remembered details about co-worker’s families, and with his wife, Susan H. Lena ’86G, was an international traveler. They are the parents of a daughter, Jennifer C. Lena, Ph.D.
Through the years with Dr. Lena
