Inducted in 2015
Prep Teacher (1967-1968; 1972-1995)
Educator & Administrator, Various Jesuit Institutes
Pioneer in Computer Technology Education

He was perhaps the most legendary Fordham teacher of his time: the Rev. William Stack Murphy, SJ. 

Back in the 1840s, the story-telling Irishman’s classes were found to be "a source of pleasure and entertainment even to the most indolent and indifferent, such was the charm of his manner and the delightful way he had of imparting information." Of his teaching style it was affectionately written, "There may have been a method in it, as there is said to be in some people’s madness, but it would puzzle anyone to find it out." 

Surprisingly similar sentiments have been expressed about a more recent teacher: the Rev. Nicholas D. Lombardi, SJ, Class of 1961, Prep teacher from 1967 to 1995. Somewhere between the antics and the ablatives, generations of Prep boys learned a whole lot of Latin. More importantly, however, they learned Lombardi’s lessons of the need for compassion and joy (and sometimes even a little light-hearted lunacy) in all aspects of life — from the mundane to the mystical. For many an alum of the late ’60s through the mid-’90s, recollections of Fr. Nick — methods, madness, and all — are among the fondest memories of their Fordham Prep years.

Nicholas Dominick Lombardi was born in Manhattan and grew up with his older brother, Donald, on East 119th Street (“A-Hun-Ninteenth” in the vernacular of the day) in what was then Italian Harlem. Their father, Domenico “Dominick” Lombardi, was a barber by trade, and their mother, Filomena “Fannie” Losurdo Lombardi owned and operated a yarn shop. Although they had met and married in New York, both Fannie and Dom were immigrants from Bari, Italy. In fact, they chose Nick’s name as a testament to their Barese heritage: he was named for San Nicolo, or St. Nicholas, whose relics are kept in that city.  How fitting that a character like Nick Lombardi would have Santa Claus as his patron saint!

Young Nick attended his parish grammar school, Holy Rosary in Harlem. By the time he was in eighth grade, his brother had already graduated from St. Louis University and knew that the Jesuit tradition of scholarship would serve his little brother well. And so, at Don’s insistence, Nick enrolled at Fordham Prep, taking the Lexington Avenue Line to the Third Avenue El to arrive at the gates of Rose Hill in September of 1957.

Proving Donald right, Nick Lombardi was fascinated and inspired during his Hughes Hall years. Whether it was Fr. McAleer standing on his desk and swinging his cane as he read Caesar aloud, or scores on Mr. Kirchner’s quizzes that were hundreds of points below zero, or even the wryness and impossibly watchful eye of Fr. Shea — these all came together for Nick as examples of how scholarly curiosity and intellectual rigor could be sources of enjoyment, satisfaction and contentment. Of course, the spiritual life of the Prep was also a perfect fit for the boy from 119th Street. He had come from a devout home, but even more than that, he had grown up eating his mother’s salzìzze e paparùli and còzze alla raganetta, and so, heeding St. Ignatius’ exhortation to “find God in all things” would seem only natural. To this day, Lombardi has been known to suggest quite matter-of-factly that a well-made dish of sausage and peppers can hold its own alongside Aquinas’ Five Proofs. And he means it.

The Lombardis moved to Bayside, Queens in the late ’50s, but Nick continued at the Prep, trading in the El for a bus ride across the Whitestone Bridge. A runner, debater and Knight of the Blessed Sacrament during his time at Rose Hill, Nicholas graduated in 1961, and would answer the call to join the Society of Jesus, entering the novitiate at St. Andrew-on-Hudson in Hyde Park, New York.

Lombardi spent the philosophate portion of his formation at his brother’s alma mater, St. Louis University, working towards a master’s degree in Classical Greek. Returning to Fordham Prep as a young scholastic in 1967, Mr. Lombardi taught for two years before leaving to do further graduate work in classics and to complete his theological studies at Woodstock College. 

Fr. Nicholas Lombardi was ordained on June 10, 1972.

After ordination, Father returned to teach once again at Alma Mater. For the next two decades, in the words of one alum, “holy hilarity ensued.” Whether teaching Greek or Latin, chairing the Classics Department, moderating the Photography and Publicity Clubs, or taking care of the fish tanks he placed around the building, Lombardi always brought his unique mixture of gravity and lightness to any situation. 

Facets of Prep life still feel the effects of Father’s influence today. Together with Fr. Joseph Barton, Fr. Stanley O’Konsky and fellow Hall of Honor inductee, Fr. Russell Sloun, Lombardi founded the Emmaus and Ad Amorem retreat programs that have become so integral to the Fordham Prep experience. 

And while laptops, smartphones and tablet computers are just normal features in the landscape of Prep life today, it was Fr. Lombardi, once again with Fr. Sloun, who not only ushered in the digital age at the school, but actually brought the Prep to international prominence for its revolutionary use of computers in an educational setting — as early as the mid-1980s! After a dare by Sloun to try a game of Space Invaders on an Atari computer, Lombardi was hooked. Two weeks later, he had learned BASIC and began to envision educational applications for his new “toy.” The rest, as they say, is history. 

Two language labs and 169 practice and drill programs later, teachers and administrators from as far away as Japan were visiting Fordham Prep to see the future. Before there was Facebook and Twitter, before there was even AOL, there was Fr. Nick’s Fordham BBS at (212) 579-2869, an early electronic bulletin board system that hosted thousands in the days before modem was a household word. Articles appeared in The New York Times, and in New York Magazine, and in several computer-related periodicals. Nor did all this escape the notice of the Jesuit provincial: at Father Provincial's request, Lombardi would pursue a doctoral degree in computer education at Nova Southeastern University in the early ’90s.

By 1995, it was becoming increasingly apparent at Rose Hill that the Prep was far outpacing the University in adapting computer technology to the classroom. And so, again at the Provincial’s request, Lombardi made the move across campus to join the University's faculty. During his years at the University, Lombardi taught computer science, directed the Faculty Computer Resource Center, worked on the University website and eventually launched the Distance Learning Program of the Catholic Studies Department. Of course, in Lombardi’s typically tongue-in-cheek estimation, he claims his most rewarding work at the University was cultivating his farm on the roof of Spellman Hall.  Throughout those years, he would harvest hundreds of pounds of tomatoes a season, and even once, a small cantaloupe — a brutto ma buono varietal to be precise.

After seventeen years at Fordham University, Fr. Lombardi was chosen to become the pastor of St. Anthony’s, the Jesuit parish in Oceanside, Long Island.  Of course, Father was no stranger to parish work — he had been a volunteer priest at St. Patrick’s Home for the Aged and a weekend associate at St. Francis de Chantal in the Bronx for decades. As Lombardi was quoted in a 2010 Jesuit publication:

“To move among the sick, to do baptisms, to work with the young religious: it gives you a taste of life from cradle to grave.  It keeps you very much alive.”

Incidentally, Lombardi was never ceremonially installed as pastor of St. Anthony's — Hurricane Sandy would devastate the seaside hamlet shortly after he arrived. Father's level-headedness, practical compassion and sense of humor in the face of such destruction were a comfort to many in the storm-ravaged storm community. For several years, the much-beloved uncle of his brother Don’s children and grandchildren remained the much-beloved pastor of Oceanside’s faithful and resilient flock.   

Today, Father is once again back at Fordham, having first served first just off-campus at Ciszek Hall overseeing the formation of the up-and-coming Jesuit scholastics, and currently at Spellman Hall where he is minster and assistant to the community superior. 

On October 3, 2013, the Very Rev. Father Adolfo Nicolás, SJ, Superior General of the Society of Jesus visited Fordham Prep. From the stage of the Leonard Theatre, he reminded the assembled Jesuits that “Nothing which is done without joy can last.” Surely Father General’s wise words were tapping into a spirit that has long pervaded the Prep — a spirit alive in Fr. Murphy’s day, back in the 1840s, and a spirit that has been sustained down through the decades by the warmth and wit of extraordinary individuals such as Fr. Nicholas Lombardi.