Remembering Myles V. Whalen ’48

Former Board Chair Began Capital Giving at Regis

Myles Whalen ’48 passed on March 21, 2017. Myles came to Regis from St. Margaret’s in Riverdale, and he was buried from that same parish. He graduated from Holy Cross and Harvard Law School, where he was an editor of the Law Review. A partner for thirty-one years at Shearman & Sterling, he served as General Counsel of Consolidated Edison.

In 1978, a precarious time financially for the Regis, Myles was asked by school president Father Raymond Swords, SJ to chair the first Regis capital campaign. Concluding in 1983, the campaign raised just short of $10 million and was the first such effort to involve solicitation of alumni.

In an address at the 1981 Order of the Owl dinner, Myles noted that “When we began the campaign in mid-1978, we realized Regis needed to supplement its endowment … if the school were to continue to operate on a sound basis, educationally and financially.” “Our objective was also to ensure that Regis’s reputation and its leadership in Catholic education would continue undiminished.”

Myles went on to serve as a member of the Board of Trustees from 1982 to 1985 and as Board Chair from 1985 to 1988.

Ron Ferreri ’62 began his assignment as Regis VP for Advancement during Myles’s board tenure: “I met Myles Whalen when I interviewed for the job at Regis in 1984 and developed a friendship with him from that point. Myles loved Regis and spearheaded efforts to make it fiscally sound. He also believed in the mission of Regis, as defined by the Foundress, that it should be a school for boys who could not afford to attend other Catholic schools.”

Myles Whalen was a leader in the first generation of alumni to assume responsibility for Regis’s financial wellbeing. That legacy of generosity and commitment endures today.