at work
Dan Lahart: Administrator on a Mission
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r. Dan Lahart, SJ, does his job, and he does it very, very well. So says NJ Santarcangelo, who has worked closely with him for many years at Strake Jesuit College Prep in Houston, most recently as director of development. “A boss is someone who directs; a leader inspires,” he said. “Fr. Lahart is a leader.” Specifically, Fr. Lahart has led Strake Jesuit as president during a time of unprecedented growth. While he will leave Strake Jesuit at the end of the school year to become president of Regis High School in New York City, his impact will benefit Strake Jesuit students far into the future. A graduate of Georgetown and a member of the Maryland Province, Fr. Lahart holds an MBA from Stanford and served as chief financial officer at Gonzaga College High School in Washington, D.C., before arriving at Strake Jesuit in 2001. In his 15th year at Strake, he is the second longest-serving current president of any U.S. Jesuit high school. His combination of formal training, commitment to mission, and ability to create relationships has been a successful formula for Strake Jesuit. As Sean Agniel, provincial assistant for secondary education noted, “He builds community and keeps Ignatian spirituality at the heart of what Strake Jesuit is all about.” According to Murray E. Brasseux, Strake Jesuit’s current board chair, Fr. Lahart has demonstrated an ability to conceive of sound, occasionally ambitious ideas, convince those around him of the merits of those ideas and then raise the sometimes-enormous sums required for implementation. During his tenure, Fr. Lahart has significantly upgraded the physical campus with new classroom buildings – most notably a state-of-the-art Science, Technology, Engineering and Math building – a chapel and sports facilities. He also championed the idea of a Retreat and Leadership
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Center, putting brick and mortar behind his mission focus. “One of the things I like about being in leadership is that I can instill institutional changes that support our priorities,” Fr. Lahart said. “Our spirituality and retreat program is a priority for us at Strake Jesuit, and the Retreat and Leadership Center reflects that.” The center is on a large tract of land about two hours north of Houston. In addition to its open space, rolling hills and a lake, the center has a chapel, dining hall, reading room, eight cabins, a bunkhouse, a conference center, a sports pavilion and playing fields. Fr. Lahart promoted the idea for the center, raised the necessary funds and oversaw construction. “Fr. Lahart has literally transformed Strake Jesuit in the 15 years he has been with us,” Mr. Brasseux said. “In addition to the physical improvements, he has grown our endowment from approximately $4 million when he arrived to approximately $30 million today. Most importantly, he has done all of this while never losing sight of the need to educate students with respect to Ignatian spirituality that is so important to Jesuit schools in this country and around the world.” While appreciating Fr. Lahart’s vision and fundraising acumen, Mr. Santarcangelo recalls Fr. Lahart’s response to students in need as his shining moment. When Hurricane Katrina forced the closure of Jesuit High School in New Orleans, Fr. Lahart decreed that Strake Jesuit would accept any and all the students from Jesuit High School who wanted to come. The school wound up with 440 additional students for that semester, requiring Strake Jesuit to offer a second “shift” of evening classes. “It was Father’s greatest accomplishment,” Mr. Santarcangelo said. “He showed real leadership and made sure we practiced what we preached. We were men and women for others.”