One year ago: Thomas P. O'Malley

Thomas P. O'Malley was president of Westchester's Loyola Marymount University during a period of significant expansion for the university. He died one year ago at age 79.

O'Malley served as president of Loyola Marymount from 1991 to 1999. A skillful fundraiser, he oversaw a capital improvement drive that raised $144 million, $16 million more than its goal. Among projects completed during his tenure were the Hilton Center for Business and the Burns Recreation Center.

An inspired teacher, O'Malley was remembered for his enthusiastic engagement in campus life, from singing in the choir at Sunday Mass to portraying Pope Paul III in a faculty play.

"Father O'Malley was truly a renaissance man -- bigger than life, quick with wit, poetical and well-versed in languages," Loyola Marymount President Robert B. Lawton said in a statement.

Before Loyola Marymount, O'Malley worked at Boston College, where he was chairman of the theology department and was named the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences in 1973. In 1980, he became president of John Carroll University in Cleveland, where he stayed for eight years.

For more, read Thomas P. O'Malley's obituary by The Times.

-- Michael Farr

Photo: Thomas P. O'Malley in 1998. Credit: Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times