Rev. Hugh Thomas “Tom” McDermott, C.S.C, an advocate and ally of the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies in its formative years, as well as a past Visiting Fellow, died July 20 after a short illness, in Springfield, Ill. He was 73.
A Funeral Mass for Fr. McDermott will be held Friday, July 26 at 3:30 p.m./ET at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart at Notre Dame. Livestream will be available on the Basilica’s website.
“Fr. Tom’s open-door, welcoming interactions were significant for many of our students from diverse, or sometimes limited religious backgrounds,” said George A. Lopez, Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., professor emeritus of Peace Studies. “This was groundbreaking in many ways in the early ‘90s.”
Fr. McDermott supported the Kroc Institute early on and was particularly instrumental in laying the groundwork for field placements in Uganda, serving as one of the first in-country field site coordinators. Reflecting on time spent with him in Uganda, Martha Merritt, formerly with the Kroc Institute and now a dean and the Carole M. Weinstein Chair of International Education at the University of Richmond, said, “Tom was a true original, and I think of him singing and dancing while we were together in Uganda. He spread joy and good stories as naturally as the rest of us breathe. I will always appreciate Tom’s generosity of spirit and his deep desire to make a positive difference in the world.”
Born in St. Louis, Mo., on July 26, 1950, Fr. McDermott graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1972 with a degree in theology. In 1973, he entered Moreau Seminary for the Congregation of Holy Cross and was ordained a priest in Sacred Heart Church at Notre Dame in 1979, having made his final vows the previous year at the Holy Cross Community House on Lake Saka, Uganda.
Fr. McDermott returned to Africa in 1982 and spent eight years in Dandora, Kenya as regional director of the Holy Cross Formation Program, and as director of Youth Ministry for 13 parishes of the Eastlands Deanery in Nairobi. From 1990-1994, Fr. McDermott was back at Notre Dame, which is where he crossed paths with Lopez because of the natural intersections of his work and that of the Kroc Institute.
“While we were still getting our bearings as an Institute in 1990, in the door walks this jovial priest who announced that the creation of the Kroc Institute was one of the greatest things his alma mater had done in a long time, and he wanted to know how to connect now that he was back on campus,” recalled Lopez.
Fr. McDermott went on to spend the next eight years in Uganda, serving as pastoral coordinator of the Diocese of Jinja, and as lecturer and rector of the seminary at Queen of Apostles Philosophy Center Jinja, before returning to Notre Dame in 2003, when he became a Visiting Fellow at the Kroc Institute. Five years later, he went to Bangladesh where he remained until 2024 serving as the assistant director of Holy Cross Scholasticate in Dhaka, simultaneously acting as director of Notre Dame University of Bangladesh Language Center.
Reflecting on Fr. McDermott’s wide-reaching career and its impact, Lopez said, “If I had to characterize the style of his diverse contributions, it would be that whatever his status at Notre Dame or overseas, Fr. Tom built under-the-radar linkages between our students and various opportunities and programs that provided in-depth, hands-on experiences with peace and justice.”
Particularly noteworthy was his role with welcoming African master’s students during a key programmatic shift within the Kroc Institute, from a focus on students from nuclear power countries, to countries suffering from violent conflict.
“If, in fact, the Kroc Institute was one of the best things that happened to Notre Dame from 1986 onward,” said Lopez, “I believe that it is in great part because of the example set by Fr. Tom – of creative, good work for others in service of peace and justice. He exemplified the Catholic vision of Kroc, and his inter-personal and capacity-building skills have an impact on our programs now, decades later.”