Inducted in 2017
Banking, International Trade & Transportation Executive
Senator, Chihuahua, Mexico
Father of a Prep Graduate

When Juan Tomás Macmanus y González passed away on September 18, 1945 in Cuernavaca, Mexico, the New York Times commemorated his life, noting that at 91 years old, Macmanus had been the oldest living Fordham alumnus. Eight decades earlier, however, when he had first arrived in New York to begin his time at Rose Hill, a nine-year-old Tomás would have been among the youngest boys ever to embark upon a Fordham career.

Tomás Macmanus was born on May 16, 1854 in Chihuahua, Mexico. His father, Francis Macmanus, the son of Irish immigrant Philadelphia merchants, had relocated to Mexico a few years earlier to expand his family’s import-export business. There, he would also become involved in mining and banking, establishing el Banco de Santa Eulalia or el Banco Macmanus & Hijos, as it came to be popularly called. Tomás’ mother, Concepción González de la Rosa, was a native Chihuahuan and a society lady.

Young Tomás spent his early life in Mexico along with his sister, Francisca, and his brothers, Ignacio and Francisco. There also seems to have been an older half-sister, Juana, from their mother’s first marriage. In early 1864, Señor Macmanus packed up Ignacio and Tomás and brought them to New York to board at St. John’s College, as Fordham Prep and University were together originally known. They reached New York City on January 7th — just in time for the start of second semester. Apparently, Tomás would often tell the story of the traffic they encountered in Manhattan that day: by chance, the Macmanuses had happened to arrive during the funeral of Archbishop John Hughes, the Prep and University’s founder.

Though not quite ten years old when he entered St. John’s College, Tomás — or Thomas or Tommy as he was also known at Rose Hill — was permitted to skip most of his Third Division studies (Fordham’s now-defunct middle school), and was admitted along with his brother directly to the Second Division (in other words, Fordham Prep). The distinction between what we would call high school and college was not as clear as it is today, and there was often overlap. Nevertheless, by 1867 or early 1868, Tomás had begun boarding with Ignacio in the newly-constructed First Division Building (today, Dealy Hall) and is therefore considered a member of the Prep Class of 1867. Upon completing his Second Division courses, Tomás Macmanus was recognized for his excellence in arithmetic, English, French, Greek, history, Latin composition and religious instruction. Ignacio and Tomás would stay on at Fordham, receiving their degrees in 1870 and ’71 respectively.

Outside of class or study hall, we know that Tomás spent a good part of his time at Rose Hill on the baseball field. He would play as both a Second and First Divisioner on some of the earliest hardball teams in school history. Among his teammates would have been fellow Latin American and fellow Prep Hall of Honor inductee, Esteban Bellán, Prep Class of 1866.

Returning home to Mexico after his years at Fordham, Macmanus would join the family business and found himself involved in real estate, international trade, mining and banking.  Tomás Macmanus would become a prominent financial figure, not only in Mexico, but in the US and overseas in Europe as well. His frequent business travel to and through New York kept him close to his alma mater all his days. Fordham would award him an honorary master’s degree in 1891 during the ceremonies marking the school’s semicentennial, as well as an honorary doctorate in 1911. 

Later in his career, Macmanus would become involved with the booming North American railroad industry and would also turn to law and politics, holding various local offices and eventually serving as a senator for the Mexican state of Chihuahua. 

On December 1, 1879, Tomás married Carolina Schetelig y Servín, the daughter of German and Mexican parents, who was also connected to international trade through her own family’s mercantile business. Together they had nine children whom they raised in a trilingual household: Ignacio, Tomás, Carolina, José, Emilia, Maria Merced, Eduardo, Margarita and Roberto. José would graduate from the Prep in 1900 and from the College in 1904; Tomás Jr. and Robert would also graduate from the College in 1910 and 1915 respectively. Grandsons would also follow in the long maroon line of Macmanuses: Joseph, Prep ’28 and College ’32; and Armand, Fordham Law ’37. 

In 1945, the Honorable Juan Tomás Macmanus y González was laid to rest in el Panteón del Tepeyac in Mexico City alongside Carolina who had passed several years before. Some two-thousand miles away, the Fordham family paused to pray.