My Excellent Story Of Father Hesburgh, Vienna, The Congo, Notre Dame, Obama, And A Family Photo Album


I was watching the televised coverage of President Obama’s speech at Notre Dame this weekend, and how the camera showed Father Theodore Hesburgh, the 90-something President Emeritus of the university, sitting proudly in the arena.

That prompted me to call my father, to ask him a question, because I remembered something from our family history.

“Was that the same Father Hesburgh who’s in one of our photo albums?”

“Yes,” my Dad replied.

He then shared with me the following story.

Father Theodore Hesburgh in Vienna, 1961

Father Hesburgh (l.) shares some thoughts with University of Vienna student Charles Johnson, my father, during a July 1961 social event in Vienna, Austria.

In 1961, my father, who was fluent in Russian and German via his military training at the U.S. Army’s Monterey Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center, got a summer job working for the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, Austria. He was about to receive his Ph.D. (in economics) from the University of Vienna.

But the degree hadn’t been conferred yet, and meanwhile he had two tiny toddlers at home with mouths to feed — namely me and my 2-year-old older brother.

Having that well-paying summer job also gave my Dad a much-coveted pass to the U.N. commissary. This meant not only that he could buy “all the most exquisite stuff,” but also that he could have it for much less than what ordinary non-diplomatic Viennese citizens had to pay.

At the time, the I.A.E.A., which was set up a few years earlier within the United Nations, was holding many large internationally attended conferences on an ongoing basis to discuss and ensure the idea of “atoms for peace.”

They hired summer students to help with everything from straightening out chairs to placing pads and pencils before delegates to handing out stacks of documents. One day, while my father was walking around at an I.A.E.A. conference performing these duties, one of the attending international delegates stopped him to take an interest in who he was and what he was doing there.

My father explained he was a student from America, about to get a doctorate in economics.

“What are you going to do with it,” the man asked.

“Go back to America to teach.”

Being a first-generation college grad from the South Side of Chicago, my Dad felt compelled go home in hopes of making a difference in the ongoing and increasingly heated civil rights movement.

“Don’t go to America,” the man said.  “You’re much more needed in Africa.”

“How do I get there?”

“There’s a charter flight leaving Brussels in two weeks, heading to the Congo; there’s a college there called the University of Lovanium, and if you can get to Brussels, they’ll take care of the rest.”

Sure enough, my Dad got to Brussels, flew to Leopoldville (now Kinshasa), interviewed with the university, and agreed to join the faculty there.

He then moved our family to Africa, where we settled into a modest home inside a university-run housing compound.  My youngest brother was born there.

According to my father, who had humble beginnings on the South Side of Chicago, the university paid for everything — the travel, the moving, the housing — which, with his salary, allowed him to save up enough to buy our first house once we finally moved back to the United States a few years later.

That man, who suggested to my Dad that he go to Africa — and arranged everything — was Father Theodore Hesburgh, then the president of the University of Notre Dame.

Father Theodore Hesburgh with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., 1964

Father Hesburgh with Dr. King in 1964, in a little-known photograph that was framed and presented by the University of Notre Dame to President Obama after his speech.

At the time he was also the permanent Vatican City representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, and that’s why he was attending those conferences.

And, he had been a charter member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights — appointed by President Eisenhower in 1957.

During his speech at Notre Dame, President Obama mentioned the work of this commission, and the pivotal role that Father Hesburgh played in helping the group reach common ground around potentially volatile and deeply entrenched issues of race.

The commission’s recommendations ultimately led to President Johnson’s historic Civil Rights Act in 1964, the year Father Hesburgh marched hand-in-hand with Dr. Martin Luther King.

So, his advice to my father during that summer of 1961 was not just idle chatter.

Father Hesburgh and my Dad remained in contact, met socially on occasion, and became friends.

“He was a guiding angel,” my father says today.

I never knew this story within the story within the story.  Even about my own family history.  Until now.

But it explains the black and white photographs in our old family album.

It explains the genesis of how on earth our family ended up in Africa, where Ebony Magazine did a feature story on him and our family in 1965.

And it explains why it was so very appropriate after all, for the University of Notre Dame to host President Barack Obama for the purpose of conferring on him an honorary degree.

Father Theodore Hesburgh in Vienna, 1961

Johnson (center) and an unidentified man (possibly Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran) listen intently to Father Hesburgh at an event (perhaps a diplomatic party) in Vienna, Austria in July 1961.

UPDATE (February 26, 2015): Rest in Peace, Father Theodore Hesburgh (1917-2015)

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Maura
12 years ago

I’m writing a book about another man that Father Ted mentored, and came across your very excellent story while doing research. Thank you so much for sharing your narrative and terrific photos. Your perspective is powerful. Bearing witness to a seminal moment in your father’s life shows that great men are always observing greatness in others, and that they can change the course of history by acting upon their observations. I’m grateful to you for sharing this unforgettable vignette.

chris
12 years ago

ALERT: i’m pretty sure that ‘unidentified man’ in that 3rd/last/bottom photo
is THE (LAST) SHAH OF IRAN, MOHAMMAD REZA PAHLAVI!!! you should do some research to find out if it really is him. if it is… then you have a really important photo in your family album!!!

Admin
12 years ago
Reply to  chris

I see what you mean. We’ll check it out with Dr. Johnson. I agree that this would be quite interesting.

David F. Jones
14 years ago

Dear Claude,
I enjoyed this story so much, and when I read your father’s postscript to his note to you,
“CHOOSE CONSCIOUSLY TO LIVE THE HIGHEST VISION OF YOURSELF” it reminded me of a commencement speech he made in 1977 at the College of St. Scholastica entitled, “The Importance of Being Your Self”. Here’s part of his closing remarks, “BE YOUR SELF. Find your inner self and continually interact with the inner stream of your life, by observing and dissolving or transforming the socially-generated or personally created self-images that can potentially distort your life. It is not that such images are of no value whatsoever. Positive and negative self-images can be useful to us. If we observe and understand them clearly, then the energy they carry can be transformed and our personality changed to reflect one of the greatest powers of the universe-the power of our inner life. This energy can provide a degree of flexibility, creativity and compassion that can help us resolve the most complex of human problems. To be truly liberated BE YOUR SELF…” Claude, you are so fortunate to have the father you have, and the graduates of the College of St. Scholastica were fortunate to have him as their commencement speaker.

carl campbell
14 years ago

i would love to meet mr. johnson just to him l know his son is on the money-i knew a gentleman who went to nd aubrey lewis starred in football and track.

Ron Stahley
14 years ago

Claude,
Your dad passed this story on to me. I have had the privilege of working with your father over the past 15 years. He has been an inspiration to me. Thank you for this wonderful story.

Ron Stahley, Superintendent of Schools
Brattleboro, Vermont

Keith Ellis
14 years ago

Great story, Claude. Long before Father Hesburgh assumed the reins, Notre Dame students took a strong stand in the 1920s against the intolerance of the “Northern wing” of the Ku Klux Klan, actually fighting it out in the streets of South Bend on several occasions as related in Todd Tucker’s fine Notre Dame Vs The Klan history. A fellow there named Knute Rockne took especial care to shake the hand & congratulate seminal black hoops champion David DeJernett at a Southern Indiana Unity banquet, after DeJernett a week before had played in a tournament despite death threats if he “so much as touched” a white opponent. Rockne died two days after making this gesture.

Indiana’s historic Catholic/Black alliance is woefully overlooked by historians these days which was a particular pity in light of Obama’s recent visit to our state. Notre Dame got its start five miles from DeJernett’s residence, far south of South Bend, btw.

14 years ago

Claude,
What a wonderful story. Thank you so much for sharing it.
Rose Mary

abner haynes sr
14 years ago

Man, That is great stuff.

Abner

14 years ago

Another, great, inspiring story, Perhaps Hesburgh recognized something in your father that they both had in common. Courage.

14 years ago

Claude,

To bad this part of the story was not appreciated by protesters at Notre Dame. I always had a dislike for that University and its Jesuit heritage with its connection to slavery. But this story helps me broaden my understanding of key people at Notre Dame who worked behind the scenes to bring real change in America and the world.

Will
10 years ago
Reply to  sam black

Notre Dame is not a Jesuit university. It’s a Congregation of Holy Cross university.

Michael Carter
14 years ago

Hi Claude,

I think we should not discount the valuable advise Father Hesburgh provided to your dad, encouraging him to go to Africa instead of coming here back to the states. Given his involvement on the Civil Rights Commission he provided insightful counsel knowing full well the volatile climate that existed and let’s not forget the significant number of young African American men at that time that would soon be drafted to fight in the Vietnam conflict. Your father was sent a guardian angel! Be well, peace!

Diane Masters
14 years ago

I enjoyed reading this story and appreciate having come across it while doing a search for Fr. Hesburgh and his involvement in shaping the Civil Rights Act. A Notre Dame grad, I am so proud that the University invited President Obama to speak, and as Fr. Jenkins noted, that President Obama accepted the invitation. Until the presentation of the photograph to Obama, I had not made the connection between his invitation and Fr. Hesburgh’s involvement with the Civil Rights Commission. I was just in awe, both at the significance, and at the media’s attention on the abortion issue and NOT on this remarkable period in history.

14 years ago

That’s a great story. I’ve known some of Fr. Hesburgh’s life story, but that was a new one. Thanks for sharing that with us.

Karen
14 years ago

This is a great story. Hopefully it will serve as a reminder that even the slightest kind act or word of encouragement can make a difference for generations to come. It’s the butterfly effect, so next time you get a chance say something positive to someone trying to make a difference. Help guide youth.

14 years ago

Claude, thank you for your continued passion and delight in history, research and connecting the dots. Thanks for letting me know another piece of my family history.

Your sister…

Dear Claude,

I love you and give so much thanks for your capturing this part of a story embedded in our end-of-the day telephone conversation. It’s fun and a source of joy and tears to “story talk.”

Keep the faith,

DAD

CHOOSE CONSCIOUSLY TO LIVE THE HIGHEST VISION OF YOURSELF

Michelle Griffin
14 years ago

Wonderful story. Thank you so much for sharing!

14 years ago

Dear Claude —
So happy that this morning I am finally reading this- sent to me by your Dad! Thank you so much for sharing this piece of history, his-story and yours. Recently I have been involved in helping move Brattleboro forward regarding welcoming and appreciating diversity and feel so lucky to have begun working with Charles. He is most definitely a blessing and guiding light in my life; I have the sense that you have followed in his caring footsteps.
Joanna Rueter
Future Search – Brattleboro,VT