Fr. Dan Riley to receive award

Father Dan Riley, O.F.M., fills many roles at St. Bonaventure University: spiritual mentor, friend, even just "the friar with the laugh." But starting today, he'll have another, more official moniker: recipient of the 2009 Gaudete Medal.

"The Gaudete Medal honors business and community leaders who exemplify the spirit of St. Francis of Assisi through their joy, hope, positive outlook on life, sincerely compassionate spirit and desire to serve others," according to the university's Web site.

The award ceremony is being held tonight at the Country Club of Buffalo in Buffalo, N.Y. More than 440 guests are expected, Emily Sinsabaugh, vice president for university relations, wrote in an e-mail.

"This event is now actually more than sold out," she wrote in an e-mail. "There will be more guests in attendance at this event than ever in the history of the event. This is a wonderful tribute to Father Dan's legacy and service, as well as the university's 150th Anniversary."

Although tickets for the dinner and ceremony cost $150, several donors allocated money to be spent enabling student attendance. Student volunteers solicited interest from the student body, and a record number showed interest, Sinsabaugh wrote.

"We received an overwhelming response from students, particularly in consideration of the fact that the event falls on the Friday of Spring Weekend," she wrote. "We have 40 students attending."

Jeff Butler, a senior accounting major who plans to attend the ceremony, said traveling to Buffalo to support Father Dan was an easy choice to make.

"Father Dan has helped me through a lot . he really helped me through a lot . he really helped me explore my spirituality," Butler said. "He's been like a brother to me. (Attending the Gaudete Ceremony) is the least I can do."

University-owned vans will transport students to the event.

Father Dan, '64, said the student response touched him.

"I felt badly that it was going to be on Spring Weekend because it collided with a big student event," he said. "I'm very honored they want to be there."

The Gaudete ceremony is an opportunity for the university to showcase its students, not him, Father Dan said.

"The big thing for me is that (students) are there so the university's friends and the larger university community can experience how wonderful the students are," he said. "That's what's important to me - you guys are a blessing to us. What could be better than for people to meet a Bonaventure student and say 'Oh wow, that's who's at Bona's now? What a great place!'"

The money raised by the Gaudete event will go toward the Annual Fund, which funds university operating expenses and several scholarships, Sinsabaugh wrote.

A committee of more than 30 alumni and friends of the university coordinated this year's Gaudete event and selected the winner. Ann McCarthy, '74, a committee member, wrote Father Dan was an obvious choice.

"Father Dan always, always puts the needs of others before his own - his gift is in making each person feel that they are singularly important," McCarthy wrote in an e-mail. "People are just drawn to him. He is a deeply spiritual man and is simply a blessing to us all - caring for us, wanting us to be happy and encouraging us in our faith."

Brother Ed Coughlin, O.F.M., vice president for Franciscan Mission, agreed.

"He's an outstanding friar who has been incredibly generous on this campus for an incredible number of years," he said. "I think it's wonderful the university is willing to recognize that and wanted to celebrate that."

Father Dan's contributions have enriched Bonaventure for decades. Ordained a priest in 1971, he returned to St. Bonaventure the same year to start up campus ministry, a new field at the time.

McCarthy said Father Dan acted as a catalyst for what would become the Thomas Merton Center.

"I have known Father Dan since I, myself, was a student at St. Bonaventure in the early '70s," she wrote. "Even then, Father Dan was a dreamer, and he had a dream that a building in the center of campus - then used for maintenance and storage - could become what is today the Campus Ministry Center.

"Once the building was gutted, painted and the Campus Ministry Center was up and running, I had the privilege of serving as one of the first student secretaries to assist Father Dan and the Campus Ministry Team. We became fast and life-long friends."

Father Dan also helped create Mt. Irenaeus, St. Bonaventure's Franciscan retreat center in West Clarksville, N.Y. He said helping expose students to Mt. Irenaeus is a big part of his mission.

"It's about creating an additional home, a place away, so people's lives would be enlivened here," he said. "I think my time on campus is partly to animate, to relate and to draw them into an interest in trying out the Mountain."

McCarthy said the lasting influence of both the Mountain and the Merton Center is a positive one.

"It has been a great joy to watch how both the Campus Ministry Center and Mt. Irenaeus continue to be so important in the lives of students and alumni," she wrote.

Although he has many responsibilities, Father Dan said his day-to-day mission is to help students on their terms, not his own.

"I'm more and more conscious that it's a sort of street ministry," he said. "I enjoy being in the Hickey (Dining Hall) or wandering around and meeting people where they are. A lot of it is forming relationships and being available for students."

A large part of Father Dan's accessibility comes from his many years as Devereux Hall's minister-in-residence.

"I feel honored that students welcome me into their living space," he said. "They let me be where they are, and I think that's a lot of what my life is: to risk being where younger people are and knowing them on their turf."