Inducted in 1996
Financial Services & Manufacturing Executive
Member, Prep Board of Trustees (1983-1995)

Maurice Cunniffe was born on May 28, 1933 to Irish immigrants Maurice and Linda Cunniffe. Maurice was a small business owner and Linda was a homemaker and a community volunteer. Moving from East 167th Street to Marion Avenue in the Bronx, the Cunniffes and their three sons, Maurice, Robert and Terence, attended Our Lady of Mercy Church, an old Bronx parish whose first home had actually been Fordham's very own University Church.

Mo entered the Prep in September of 1946, a member the homeroom of Mr. Albert Kirchner, a fellow member of the Hall of Honor. During his time at the Prep, Maurice Cunniffe's interests were many and varied. He ran track and debated, wrote for the paper and acted, remained active in the spiritual life of the school with the Sodality and Knights of the Blessed Sacrament, was involved with the Physics Club, tutored French and Latin, and was even a member of one of the Prep's first cutting-edge technological endeavors: the Radio Club. Luckily, he was a local boy, living not even a mile from the Campus. Had his commute been any longer, young Cunniffe might not have had enough hours in a day

After graduating from the Prep in 1950, Mo Cunniffe continued on at Fordham University, where he earned a BA in physics in 1954. He would subsequently earn a master's degree from the Stevens Institute of Technology.

Not long after his Rose Hill days, Maurice courted and married Jane Margaret Charles, a graduate of St. Elizabeth's College in New Jersey, who would later become a noteworthy figure in the promotion of scholarship in the field of American art and would be associated with such prestigious institutions as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian Museum of American Art. Eventually settling in Connecticut, the Cunniffes would have two sons, Mark and David. At the time of Jane's passing in 2008, the Cunniffes had been married for 51 years.

In 2010, Mo married Carolyn Dursi, a senior vice president with Cablevision with three Fordham degrees of her own, including a doctorate in 1971.
 
As presaged by the breadth of his extracurricular involvement during his high school days, Mo’s career has covered a wide swath. He has been chief engineer at the Sperry Gyroscope Company, and a partner at the investment house of A.G. Becker. He has consulted for McKinsey and Company, and has served as chairman and CEO of Vista Capital Corporation. He owned American Optical Corporation, a worldwide manufacturer of ophthalmic lenses, safety products, contact lenses and specialty products for the US Government. He became Chairman of Sola International, a public company with manufacturring and laboratory operations in 104 countries.
 
Maurice Cunniffe served on the Prep’s Board of Trustees for twelve years, from 1983 to 1995. Fordham Prep will always look with gratitude to his successful efforts to expand the school’s facilities. During his tenure on the Board, he would help oversee the construction of Maloney Hall, the section of the Prep containing the Hall of Honor, the Intramural Gym and the 1,000-seat Leonard Theatre. 

Through the years, Cunniffe has proven himself a true son of Fordham even beyond the Prep. He is a trustee emeritus of University's Board, on which he had served faithfully for years. In 2010, Fordham University presented Cunniffe — along with fellow Prep Hall of Honor inductee Mario Gabelli — its prestigious Founder's Award, which recognizes the achievements of accomplished Fordham alumni.  In 2013, the University would again recognize Mo's enduring devotion to his alma mater by rededicating Rose Hill's oldest structure, the Administration Building, as Cunniffe House. 

Not one, but two Daniels Cunniffe have followed Maurice as Prep alums — Mo's nephew, Class of 1993, as well as his grandson, Class of 2010 — continuing a family legacy of loyalty and dedication begun a half century earlier by the boy from Marion Avenue.