Some names are so familiar that we cease to wonder about the lives behind them. Constantin is one such name. For generations of University of Dallas students and faculty alike, it has appeared on our letterhead and our diplomas. We read it, perhaps, without a second thought. Yet behind that familiar name is the story of a family whose generosity was itself an act of remembrance — a gift sown in tears.
As the season of thanksgiving begins, I want to tell the story of Eugene and Ruth Constantin: what they lost, what they gave, and what their love made possible.
Eugene Constantin, an enterprising Texas oilman, and his wife, Ruth, helped found the University of Dallas in 1956. To understand the impelling force of their contributions, we must go back eleven years, to a young Marine who died on the battlefield of Okinawa.
Eugene Pierre Cyprien Constantin III, United States Marine Corps
Eugene Pierre Cyprien Constantin III was the Constantins’ only son. A second lieutenant in the 22nd Regiment, Sixth Marine Division, he was killed in action on April 16, 1945. He was twenty-two years old.
For the Constantins, the death of their only son was an immeasurable loss. From their sorrow, however, came blessings for generations of young men and women they would never know. The Psalmist provides an image for understanding such things: “Those who sow in tears will reap with cries of joy.” If our tears are not shed in vain, that, of course, does not mean the grief from which they spring will simply cease. The harvest comes later, sometimes much later, and may exceed anything we could have imagined.
The Constantins could hardly have imagined the harvest that would follow when, at Bishop Thomas Gorman’s encouragement, they joined the Sisters of Saint Mary of Namur in establishing a Catholic university in Dallas.
Ruth and Eugene Constantin
Mr. Constantin is remembered for insisting that UD be a “real university,” and not just another Catholic college. From the outset, the University has more than fulfilled that ambition. For seventy years, the University they helped establish has sought, through its teaching, to preserve and pass on the intellectual and spiritual inheritance of the civilization their son gave his life to defend. Eugene Constantin began that work in 1954 by organizing the University’s first fundraising campaign. The family’s support continued as the institution grew. With gifts totaling $6 million between 1967 and 1969, the Constantin Foundation endowed the undergraduate college in their son’s memory, helping to secure its work for future generations. Since 1994, the Constantin name has also marked the place where our students encounter that living tradition firsthand: our campus at Due Santi, nestled in the Alban Hills just outside Rome.
The Eugene Constantin Campus (Due Santi)
Consider the harvest. For generations, thousands of young men and women have gathered under the name Constantin to study the great works of Western civilization and to encounter, in the art and architecture of Roman churches, the riches of Catholic thought. They, in turn, have carried the fruits of that education into their families, their professions, their communities, and the Church.
As we enter our eighth decade, the Constantins’ story offers us something more than a reason for thanks. It offers us an example.
For who among us is without tears? Some of us have buried a child. Others carry the loss of a parent or a spouse, a long illness, broken relationships, dreams dashed, denied, or deferred. In this season of thanksgiving, gratitude does not require us to ignore the pain of loss. It does, however, invite us to trust, as the Constantins trusted, that our tears are known by One who gave himself for us all.
The Constantins gave out of grief. We live, even now, among the blessings of the gifts they sowed in tears. In thanks, we in turn may care for those who will come after us, as we lay new foundations for the future.
May Our Lady intercede for us, may the Lord bless us, and may He establish the work of our hands.
Venite, aedificemus,
Jonathan J. Sanford, PhD
President and Professor of Philosophy