Rev. Robert J. Austgen, CSC, ’55 was an avid collector of Notre Dame ghost stories, keeping a thick binder — now in the University Archives — filled with tales of spectral campus encounters.
Austgen also studied what he called the “divine geometry” underlying the University’s physical design. He theorized that the original campus plan had placed buildings and statues according to solar movements and ley lines — invisible seams linking ancient ceremonial sites and believed by some to resonate with magnetic forces — that intersected in front of the Main Building.
A former faculty member of theology, Austgen died August 16. He was 91.
Born in Hammond, Indiana, he enrolled at Notre Dame in 1950 and entered Moreau Seminary as an undergraduate. He was ordained in Rome in 1958 and later completed a doctorate in sacred theology at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland.
Austgen taught at the University of Portland before returning to campus in 1964. A specialist in New Testament ethics, he published a 1966 book, Natural Motivation in the Pauline Epistles. In 1970, he began serving in a series of administrative posts, directing the University’s summer session and its graduate admissions before joining the College of Arts & Letters as an assistant dean. Other campus roles included terms as prefect of Pangborn Hall and rector of Stanford and Brownson halls. He also taught courses in the Department of Government and International Studies and served as a chaplain for University Health Services.
A friend to everyone he met, the priest got to know many groundskeepers and custodial workers by name. “Happy day!” was his habitual greeting.
He was himself a dedicated gardener. While in charge of Brownson Hall, he launched a 15-year project designing and tending flower beds and a herb garden in the neighboring courtyard.
He is survived by a sister and many nieces and nephews.
E. Jane Doering ’69M.A. was a lifelong teacher and scholar who completed her doctorate in her 60th year and then joined the Notre Dame faculty.
A professor emerita in the Program of Liberal Studies, Doering died August 23. She was 91.
Born and raised in New Jersey, she had already earned her master’s degree in education when she attended the summer school at Laval University in Quebec. There she met Bernard Doering, a fellow Francophile.
The couple married in 1958. Seven years later, they moved to South Bend, where Bernard joined the Notre Dame faculty and Jane taught French at Saint Mary’s Academy and Saint Joseph High School while earning a master’s degree in French literature.
The Doerings helped established the University’s study abroad program in Angers, France. They would mentor six cohorts of students in the program.
In 1992, Jane Doering earned her doctoral degree in French literature at Northwestern University. At Notre Dame, she specialized in the work of the French philosopher Simone Weil and taught literature for 20 years. She wrote or co-wrote three books and more than three dozen articles about Weil. She also taught in the University’s Teachers as Scholars program.
Determination was a defining characteristic; language and travel were expansive interests. “She lived so fully. When she did something, she did it to a superlative degree,” said her friend Jane Pitz ’72MFA.
A longtime member of a French film group and an Italian conversation group, Doering traveled to Spain in her late 80s to learn Spanish. In the final year of her life, she traveled to France, kayaked in the Everglades and hiked in four national parks.
Preceded in death by Bernard, she is survived by four children and 10 grandchildren.
Rev. Edward D. O’Connor, CSC, ’44 was known for his commitment to the poor, his Marian devotion and his early leadership in the Catholic Charismatic Renewal movement.
An associate professor emeritus of theology who taught at Notre Dame for more than four decades before retiring in 1993, O’Connor died May 30. He was 101.
Born in Denver, he arrived at Notre Dame and entered the Congregation of Holy Cross in 1940, studied philosophy and was ordained to the priesthood in 1948 in Washington, D.C. Graduate studies in France and Italy culminated with a doctorate in sacred theology at the Angelicum in Rome.
While teaching at Notre Dame, he was director of studies at Moreau Seminary from 1959 to 1965, minus a year of further studies in Tübingen, Germany.
O’Connor was one of the first Holy Cross priests involved in the charismatic renewal that arrived at Notre Dame in 1967. “Our movement does not mean a new Church, but a Church renewed,” he later explained during one of the charismatic conferences then held annually at Notre Dame. By 1973 more than 25,000 participants — Catholic and Protestant — attended the conference and gathered in Notre Dame Stadium for its general session.
Students found O’Connor intellectually rigorous — and always ready to help. “He was a gentle, listening, pastoral kind of priest,” said James Burke ’72, who described O’Connor as a strong spiritual guide and mentor during his undergraduate years. “I found myself flourishing under his guidance.”
An expert in Marian devotion, O’Connor served as president of the Mariological Society of America. He wrote more than a dozen books, including The Pentecostal Movement in the Catholic Church and Pope Paul VI and the Spirit.
Meanwhile, he devoted himself to the marginalized, collecting food and money to distribute to people in need. For years, he ministered daily in local nursing homes, celebrating the Mass and bringing the Eucharist to Catholic residents. When he could no longer drive, he would bike, walk or seek a ride to continue that ministry.
O’Connor and several Holy Cross brothers led a longstanding weekly prayer group in the Log Chapel, and it is believed that he initiated the daily evening Rosary gathering at the Grotto that continues today.
He is survived by a sister and many nieces and nephews.
José Anadón and Silvia Rojas-Anadón met as teenagers in their native Chile. They spent their personal and academic lives together, passing away just six months apart.
José Anadón, 88, died on February 28, 2024, and Silvia Rojas-Anadón on August 22, 2024, at age 85. They were professors emeriti in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures.
As a youth, José Anadón received a scholarship to attend Albion College in Michigan. After marrying, the couple moved to Ann Arbor, where both completed their doctoral studies at the University of Michigan.
José was hired at Notre Dame in 1975 and taught here for 38 years. His academic focus was the Latin American novel, exploring colonialist and indigenous work. Silvia served on the Notre Dame faculty from 1979 to 2000. She enjoyed writing short stories and poems and was a regular sender of letters to the editor of the local newspaper, penning opinions about politics and social issues.
The couple are survived by three children and five grandchildren.
Yu-Chi Chang, a connoisseur of Chinese green teas and pioneer of the classroom PowerPoint presentation, specialized in teaching introductory statistics to business students, mostly undergraduates. Remembered as a patient instructor, he spent countless hours working with students in his office.
A professor emeritus of management in the Mendoza College of Business who retired from teaching in 2009, Chang died November 4 at age 94.
Born in Anhui, China, Chang studied at National Taiwan University before earning his graduate degrees in the United States. He joined the Notre Dame faculty in 1971 and served many years on his department’s committee for appointments and promotions in support of Notre Dame’s growing emphasis on faculty research. His undergraduate teaching earned multiple University awards.
With the help of his tech-savvy younger son, Chang developed PowerPoint slides for his classes characterized by funny sound effects and videos, said Dave Hartvigsen, a professor emeritus of Information Technology, Analytics and Operations.
Chang is survived by his wife, Margaret, two sons and four grandchildren.
The five years Gerry Faust spent as the Notre Dame football coach were pretty miserable. His teams never won more than seven games or finished a season ranked; his 30-26-1 overall record fell far below the program’s historic standard.
He arrived with great fanfare in 1981 after two dominant decades coaching Cincinnati’s Archbishop Moeller High School, a Catholic powerhouse that had supplied plenty of Fighting Irish talent. The “Faust Fever” enthusiasm that greeted him, spiking after a win over LSU in his debut that propelled the Fighting Irish to No. 1, soon broke and never rose again. That his name rhymed with “oust” provided an all-too-glib shorthand for aggrieved fans who wanted him gone. Their wish came true late in 1985, when the embattled Faust resigned as the team staggered toward a final, brutal loss to Miami.
There were highlights, most notably an upset of No. 1 Pittsburgh in 1982. And players Faust recruited included 1987 Heisman Trophy winner Tim Brown ’88 and much of the 1988 national championship roster, though those triumphs would come under his successor, Lou Holtz.
In time, Faust would become a fan favorite, celebrated for his personal virtues if not his teams’ performances on the field. He demonstrated an effusive love for Notre Dame and harbored no ill will for the treatment he endured from fans.
After 1994, when he retired at the end of nine seasons as head coach at Akron, Faust became a fixture at Notre Dame home games, a fan as invested in the fortunes of the football program and the University as any other. His affinity for the place and his resolute Catholic faith made him as beloved in his twilight years in the stands as he was once scorned in the spotlight of the sidelines.
Faust died November 11 at age 89, his coaching record not forgotten, but the man himself remembered fondly for his character, which transcended victory or defeat.