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Born in a Maryland suburb along the Baltimore Beltway, Patrick Leahy didn’t travel too far to get his Bachelor of Arts Degree in English.

He studied at Georgetown University near the heart of Washington, D.C., some 60 miles from his native Towson, Md. — itself a noted college town.

Leahy went to work at Georgetown as development director before a 13-year stint in the private sector that included investment officer at Allied Capital Corporation and account executive at Deluxe Corporation.

Ivy League education

From there he went Ivy League.

At Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., Leahy earned not one but two masters degrees — one in business administration and another in labor relations. There he was awarded a Fried Fellowship, considered a prestigious honor given to only five second-year students in the SC Johnson College of Business who showed academic excellence.

When he opted to pursue a doctor of education, Leahy stuck with the Ivy League and headed to the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

Leahy was co-founder and president of the Business Affairs Forum, a distance-learning community headquartered in Ithaca — the job he left when he launched his career in regional higher education as executive assistant to the president of the University of Scranton in 2004. He later became executive vice-president.

Scranton and Wilkes-Barre

During his eight-year tenure at “The U” Leahy worked in government relations, undergraduate and graduate admissions, intercollegiate athletics, planning and information Technology. Leahy helped spearhead the Jesuit-founded university’s $125 million “Pride Passion, Promise” campaign, hitting the goal two years ahead of schedule. He was also credited with increasing applications and freshman class enrollment by double-digit margins.

When Wilkes conducted a search for a replacement of outgoing President Tim Gilmour in 2012, Leahy was one of three finalists announced. He was the last of those three to tour the campus later that month. He was installed as Wilkes’ sixth president in September that year at the age of 44.

Top earner

Leahy has routinely received more compensation that presidents at other area institutions of higher learning, thought the local numbers are usually skewed by the fact that the other four major private schools are all affiliated with a religious order. Typically when a member of that order is president — currently The Rev. John Ryan at King’s College, Sister Mary Persico at Marywood University and The Rev. Scott Pilarz at the University of Scranton — they get a small stipend with any additional money going to their religious order.

According to the latest report on private school president pay issued annually by The Chronicle of Higher Education, Leahy’s compensation in 2016 — the latest number available — was $417,479. By comparison, Ryan’s pay was $10,090. Pilarz and Persico are not listed in Chronicle data because they were installed in 2018 and late 2016 respectively, but Pilarz predecessor The Rev. Kevin Quinn had a compensation of $21,183.

Misericordia University is the area’s only private school founded by a religious order to have a lay president, and Thomas Botzman’s compensation in 2016 was $369,966.

The Chronicle does not list the pay for Monmouth’s current president, Grey J. Dimenna — an interim appointment made last year — but his predecessor Paul Brown, who headed the New Jersey school from 2013 to 2017, had total compensation in 2016 of $807,521.

Leahy and his wife Amy have four children: Grace, 20; Molly, 18; Jack, 14; and Brian, 12.

President Patrick F. Leahy is seen conferring degrees during Wilkes University’s 2015 commencement exercises.
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/web1_Wilkes-U-2015-Graduation-5.jpeg.optimal.jpegPresident Patrick F. Leahy is seen conferring degrees during Wilkes University’s 2015 commencement exercises. Times Leader file photo

By Mark Guydish

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Reach Mark Guydish at 570-991-6112 or on Twitter @TLMarkGuydish