Legends of Prep XI
Jerry Sheehan, ’48 “Tonight...we thank him for inspiring us all to ‘think big’ and to share our gifts in the benefit of others.”
Legends of Prep celebrates those who have a profound positive impact upon Saint Peter’s Prep and its mission. One would be hard pressed to envision a single alumnus, spearheading a single initiative, that meets that critereon more emphatically than Jerry Sheehan and his namesake Sheehan Academic Scholarships. The program had its genesis in an early 2009 visit by then-Prep president Bob Reiser, S.J. to Jerry’s office, to thank him for his recent generosity, and provide an update on life at Grand & Warren. When the conversation shifted to ways Jerry might support the school’s capital projects, this longtime financial support of Prep was receptive. But rather than bricks and mortar, he had something very special in mind: a new and unique merit-based scholarship program that, over the next decade, would attract the best and brightest students to Prep. Beyond their record of academic achievement, these should be scholars with “fire in the belly,” fully committed to getting the most out of their Jesuit education.
With the encouragement of Jerry’s friend from both their Prep and Holy Cross days, Earle Markey, S.J., ’49, the truly transformational Sheehan Scholarship Program was born. Jerry would provide nearly $12 million to fund students beginning with the entering Class of ’15, and continuing through the graduation of the Class of ’22, covering all tuition and fees, as well as extensive enrichment opportunities.
Today, six years following that initial meeting, the Sheehan Scholarship program is fully integrated into Prep’s DNA, with 67 young men currently attending Prep as “Sheehan Scholars.” The initial cohort of 17 Scholars graduated this past June and are continuing their education at a number of the nation’s top universities, bringing Jerry’s vision fully to fruition. Jerry’s own commitment to excellence began in the classroom at Our Lady of Victories School, Jersey City, followed by impressive academic careers at Prep and the College of the Holy Cross. He served as an officer with the U.S. Marine Corps during the Korean conflict and began his professional career in 1956 as a route salesman for his father-in-law’s beer distribution company, L. Knife & Son, Inc. Jerry purchased the company in 1964, and since that time this family-owned enterprise has grown to include 19 beer distribution centers in the United States, with Jerry as its truly “hands-on” president.
Jerry also is the founder of The Sheehan Family Foundation, which supports education projects, open space preservation and watershed protection. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the College of the Holy Cross, the Board of Trustees of the Campaign for Catholic Schools, and the Board of Directors of the Beer Distributors of Massachusetts; also, he previously sat on the Board of Directors of The Rockland Trust Company. He and his wife Maureen (who shares Jerry’s passion for Prep and its students) have eight children and twenty grandchildren.
Jerry’s extraordinary career has earned him many titles: entrepreneur, philanthropist, visionary, and so forth. Tonight, we add one more, “Legend of Prep,” and thank him for inspiring us all to “think big” and to share our gifts in the benefit of others.