David Hillhouse Buel (priest)

David Hillhouse Buel (priest)

David Hillhouse Buel Jr. was an American priest who served as the president of Georgetown University. He was a Catholic priest and Jesuit for much of his life, but later left the Jesuit order to marry, and subsequently left the Catholic Church to become an Episcopal priest. Buel’s ancestry includes several prominent and influential families, such as the McDougalls, Hansons, Wilmers and Hillhouses, the latter of which produced many statesmen and scholars in Connecticut.

About David Hillhouse Buel (priest) in brief

Summary David Hillhouse Buel (priest)David Hillhouse Buel Jr. was an American priest who served as the president of Georgetown University. He was a Catholic priest and Jesuit for much of his life, but later left the Jesuit order to marry, and subsequently left the Catholic Church to become an Episcopal priest. Buel’s ancestry includes several prominent and influential families, such as the McDougalls, Hansons, Wilmers and Hillhouses, the latter of which produced many statesmen and scholars in Connecticut. His earliest American ancestor, William Buel, arrived in 1630 from England, and his grandfather was a Congregational minister and an 1833 graduate of Williams College. His great-great- great-uncle was James Hillhouse, treasurer of the university for 50 years, and the president pro tempore of the United States Senate. His mother was Josephine Maria Buel née McDougall, the daughter of Brigadier General Charles McDougal, and she was of Scottish ancestry. The Buel family was also prominent in Connecticut, and was one of the oldest in New England. He attended Williston Seminary in Easthampton, Massachusetts, where he graduated in 1879. From there, he went to Yale University where he became known by his nickname of Ted. At Yale, he became interested in theater, and lived next door to St. Mary’s Church. Along with other Protestant students, Buel began attending Catholic Mass at St. Mary’s after the Protestant chapel services at which Yale required attendance of all students.

The neighboring Protestants were not happy with Protestant students attending the Catholic church. Two of his Protestant classmates were also guided by McGivney, and converted to Catholicism and converted Buel to Catholicism. He wrote Medravesty, a play based on the Greek tragedy Medea, and a musical titled Penike; or Cuisine and Cupid, which was staged professionally in New Haven, Connecticut. He also wrote operettas, which he continued to write later in life, and he died in New York City in 1961, at the age of 83. He is buried in Mount Vernon, New York, with his wife, Josephine, and two brothers, Samuel and Clarence, who were also Episcopal priests. His son, David Buel III, is also a priest and served in the U.S. Army during the Second World War as a lieutenant colonel in the Army of the Tennessee. He died in 1994, at age 89, and is survived by his wife and two daughters. He had a son, Timothy, who was a professor at Georgetown University and served as president of the school from 1905-1908. In 1905, he promoted intramural sports, oversaw construction of Ryan Gymnasium, and reformed the curriculum and university governance. He instituted strict discipline and curtailed intercollegiate athletics, stoking fierce opposition from the student body and their parents, which resulted in his removal by the Jesuit superiors in 1908. He then performed pastoral work and taught for several years, before resigning from the Jesuits in 1912.