51����

“If we are going to save ourselves, we must train the whole man, not only his intellect, but also his will,” said Bl. Fulton J. Sheen at a San Francisco kickoff dinner for 51���� in 1970.  

A half-century later, on the occasion of Archbishop Sheen’s beatification, the College remembers his contribution to making this one-of-a-kind institution of higher learning a reality. 

In 51����’s infancy, before it had a campus or students, its founders worked to raise funds and interest for the school they imagined, sharing their vision with all those interested in preserving Catholic liberal education. As part of those efforts, they established a Board of Governors, which included John E. Schaeffer, a San Francisco attorney. 

“The founders always said that TAC would not have gotten going without my parents,” remembers Anne (Schaeffer ’81) Forsyth, the College’s director of special projects and the Schaeffers’ second daughter. “For the first year or so, they were the only support the College had.” 

The Schaeffer family hosted many a dinner party for the College’s founders and potential benefactors in their home. When it came time to bring that hospitality to a larger scale, founding president Dr. Ronald P. McArthur appointed Mr. Schaeffer co-chair of the College’s first fundraising dinner, alongside Alessandro Baccari, the owner of a local PR firm. Through the pair’s efforts, over 450 interested guests arrived at the dinner. 

Archbishop Sheen came into the picture when the then-Archbishop of San Francisco, the Most Rev. Joseph McGucken, suggested the media giant as a speaker for the fundraiser. Although Archbishop Sheen had recently suffered a stroke and had limited his public appearances, he was scheduled to attend a conference in San Franciso that year. With the help of Archbishop McGucken, the College’s founders planned their dinner near the conference, at the Fairmont Hotel, and waited for the beloved televangelist’s reply. 

“By some miracle, he said yes!” Mrs. Forsyth recalls. From the office of the Archbishop of New York, Archbishop Sheen received a glowing review of the College’s mission and goals. Though there is no record of what was said, it was enough to convince the most famous Catholic in America to give the keynote address at a dinner for a college with as-yet no public acclaim and which had not even opened. 
 

On April 25, 1970, the promotional dinner took place and saw tremendous success, in no small part thanks to the efforts of the College’s founders, Board members, and friends. Archbishop Sheen’s address gripped the room, his captivating voice booming out over the crowd. “Christian education will have to begin to try to restore the training of the will and to reintroduce again into education some kind of discipline, which is the foundation of Christian character,” he stated. “That is our first requirement of a reborn Catholic education.” 

Just 18 months later, in the fall of 1971, 51���� opened its doors, welcoming its first class of 33 students. Now, 56 years after his appearance at the Fairmont Hotel, Archbishop Sheen’s attendance remains a salient moment in the College’s history. “I don’t know if he realized how important this moment was for us,” says Mrs. Forsyth, “but his presence alone did the College a world of good.”

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