Alumni Gala 

Among Saint Joseph’s most passionate alumni, Richard J. Kelly ’59 is the 2011 recipient of the Rev. Joseph S. Hogan, S.J. Award.

While a student on Hawk Hill, the physics major was a member of the Sigma Pi Sigma Honor Society, Glee Club, and AFROTC band. After graduation, Kelly worked for Remington Rand Univac and RCA before joining IBM for a 30-year career.

Never straying far from Hawk Hill, he and his wife, Marilyn Angelotti Kelly, can often be spotted at basketball games and many University occasions. Kelly’s long list of leadership involvements with the University include serving as President of the Alumni Association, a member of the Council of Presidents, an external member of the Development Committee of the University’s Board of Trustees, and serving on the University Presidential Search Committee in 2002.  He has also served on his class reunion committee and currently serves as a member of the Advisory Board of the College of Arts and Sciences. Dick is also a Board Member of the Fortier Corporation. The Richard J. Kelly and Marilyn J. Kelly Scholarship Fund affords students the opportunity to enjoy transformational education on Hawk Hill.

Kelly and his first wife, Eugenie O’Brien, who passed away in 1986, believed so strongly in the value of a Saint Joseph’s University education that they sent their three daughters (Denise ’88, Fiona ’91 ’93 and Monique ’94 ‘97) to Hawk Hill.  The tradition lives on as two of Kelly’s 15 grandchildren have recently graduated from Saint Joseph’s while 6 grandchildren currently attend Jesuit schools.

Kelly’s contributions to his community extend beyond SJU. He served for fifteen years on the board of the St. Joseph's Carpenter Society, a non-profit which has provided rehabbed and new housing to more than eight hundred families in Camden N.J. He is presently completing his fifth year as a member of the South Jersey Leadership Team for Good Counsel Homes, a non-profit which provides housing and support for pregnant, homeless women.

The South Jersey native is a graduate of Saint Joseph’s Grammar School in East Camden and Camden Catholic High School.

To learn more about Good Counsel Homes or Saint Joseph's Carpenter Society, please click the logos below.