Inducted in 2015
Prep President & Teacher (1980-1996)
Educator & Administrator, Various Jesuit Institutions

The Fordham Prep Hall of Honor celebrates many individuals who labored to give the school a future: notables such as Hughes and McCloskey who saw the school through its precarious 1841 founding; Dealy whose efforts to modernize Fordham kept the whole institution from slipping into obsolescence as the 20th century fast approached; or Abplanalp, McNamara and Wilson who kept the Prep alive through the tenuous years of the 1970s during the legal separation from the University.

Fr. Edward Francis Maloney, SJ was not one of these individuals.

For a decade after its independent incorporation, the whole spirit of Fordham Prep seemed to be focused on tomorrow. With the school always seeming just about a mortgage payment away from closing its doors forever, all eyes were trained on the horizon, watching and waiting for what would happen next. Without a doubt, the 1970s were an extraordinary and exciting time in school history, but after all the celebrity-studded fundraisers, the eleventh-hour campaigns and the miraculously timely collapses of lending institutions, it was finally time for Fordham Prep to get its head out of next week and to get to the business of being the venerable, nearly-150-year-old school it was. 

In the words of Fr. Ed Maloney’s niece, Elizabeth Gilbride DeSoye, “He had a quiet energy about him.” When he arrived in 1980, it was precisely that quiet energy that would serve Fordham Prep so well. While the Maloney years would indeed be a time of remarkable growth for the Prep, Father will likely be remembered less as a president of progress than as a man who gave the school precisely what it needed at that moment in its history, in the true spirit of St. Ignatius, an examination, awareness and appreciation of Fordham Prep’s present.

Edward Maloney was born on March 10, 1923 in Brooklyn, New York. His father, Richard Maloney, was an attorney, and his mother, Mary Pramuk Maloney, the Pennsylvania-born daughter of Austrian immigrants, managed the household. Edward was baptized at St. Anselm’s on 82nd Street in Bay Ridge, where he attended the parish grammar school. He grew up with an older brother, Richard, Jr., and a younger sister, Mary Virginia. There was also Florence Dupell, the devoted housekeeper, who would live with the family throughout Ed’s childhood.

A gifted athlete — he would remain an avid golfer all his days — Ed graduated from Brooklyn’s Poly Prep in 1941, a letterman in soccer, basketball and baseball. After high school, he attended Georgetown for a year before entering the Society of Jesus at St. Andrew’s-on-Hudson in Hyde Park, New York. He spent the philosophate portion of his formation at West Baden College in West Baden Springs, Indiana, earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Loyola University of Chicago along the way. He returned to New York as a scholastic and taught English, French and Latin for two years at Brooklyn Prep before leaving to continue his theological studies at Woodstock College in Maryland.

Fr. Edward Maloney was ordained on June 18, 1955 in the Fordham University Church. He spent his first year as a priest studying ascetical theology at the Jesuit College of St. Beuno’s in Tremeirchion, Wales, one-time home to the renowned Victorian poet, Fr. Gerard Manley Hopkins, SJ.

Returning to the United States, Maloney began his long association with Canisius College in Buffalo, New York. He would remain at the “home of the Griffins” for the next two decades with the exception of a short stint in New York City in the early ’70s as he completed his doctorate in educational administration at NYU. Father taught theology during his first year in Buffalo, and then served as dean of students, dean of faculty, academic vice president, executive vice president for academic affairs and even as acting president in 1975. In the words of former Canisius president, Fr. Vincent Cooke, SJ, “Fr. Maloney was one of the great people to have been associated with Canisius College.”

On January 1, 1980, Fr. Edward Maloney assumed the presidency of Fordham Preparatory School. For the next sixteen years, he was the embodiment of the Prep spirit, kind, gentle, compassionate and affirming — Christlike in every way. He brought a stability and calmness to the Prep, well-deserved by the community after so many years of living on the edge. His ability to discern the goodness in the here and now allowed Fordham Prep to relax, rediscover itself and reaffirm its mission — and in doing so, to thrive. During Fr. Maloney’s tenure, enrollment reached historic levels. Through his tireless efforts, the facilities were expanded with the construction of the Leonard Theatre, the Hall of Honor and the Intramural Gym. The entire addition was named Maloney Hall as a tribute to Father’s hard work and dedication.

If Father helped give Fordham Prep a present, then he also, in a sense, helped to give the school back its past. With the separation from the University and the move from Hughes Hall, many connections to the Prep’s long and storied history were broken. But as Fordham’s sesquicentennial approached in 1991, Fr. Maloney saw an opportunity to renew the school’s ties to its roots, and to reinject a sense of tradition and heritage into the school’s culture. With a nod from the President’s Office, faculty members Gus Stellwag, Class of 1949, and Frank Holbrook, Class of 1945 — both Hall of Honor inductees — undertook the task of researching and writing When September Comes, the first official history of Fordham Prep. Slowly but surely, the long maroon line leading all the way back to 1841 would once again be drawn. 

Father remained as president through 1996. His departure from the Prep was felt by all. Robert Gomprecht, Class of 1965, headmaster at the time, echoed the sentiments of the whole Prep community as he shared his thoughts on the man with whom he had worked so closely:  “Father is thoughtful and caring, tough when he has to be, and always sees the good in others. He is a gentleman, he's classy and above all he is an outstanding priest. These personal qualities are the reason he is so successful at everything he does. I've been fortunate to have him as teacher, mentor and boss."

After his Prep years, Fr. Edward Maloney remained at Rose Hill as superior of the Fordham Jesuit Community at Loyola Hall, where he served until his passing on December 23, 2003. In addition to his many friends, colleagues and his brothers in the Society, Father left behind his brother and sister, and their children and grandchildren, all of whom adored and loved him. Grandnephews Mark and Geoffrey DeSoye graduated from their uncle’s school in 2002 and 2006 respectively. In Geoffrey’s words, “Uncle Ed was just the best. And he loved Fordham Prep more than anything.” With a smile he added, “Well, maybe golf was first, but I’m sure Fordham Prep was a very close second.” The Maloney family have been ardent supporters of the Prep scholarship established in Father’s honor.

The legacy of Fr. Edward Maloney, SJ will endure for generations, in Buffalo and in the Bronx, in the hearts and minds of all who knew him, and on the addition which proudly bears his name.