Prep Talk
New Leadership Announced
Posted November 30th, 2016
St. Augustine Prep is pleased to announce Father Robert J. Murray, O.S.A., Ph.D., as the next leader at St. Augustine Preparatory School, Richland, New Jersey. At the same time, we are pleased to make known the selection of Father Donald F. Reilly, O.S.A. D. Min., as next Head of School at Malvern Prep, Malvern, Pennsylvania. These two friars bring a wealth of experience and a proven record of leadership in the Province and in the field of education.
As a member of the St. Augustine Preparatory School Board of Directors since January 2010, Father Robert Murray, O.S.A., has served as Chair of the Mission, Governance, and Planning Committee as well as a member of the Institutional Effectiveness Committee. His extended relationship with St. Augustine Prep, along with extended experience and achievement in our Augustinian educational apostolate make him the ideal choice to lead the South Jersey campus community at this moment. This is an exciting time for Saint Augustine Prep as it lives its Catholic, Augustinian mission, continues to strengthen its academic and co-curricular programs, and provides an experience for young men reflective of both realities. In all of this, Father Murray brings great promise.
Father Murray, professed as a member of the Augustinian Order in 1976, was ordained to the priesthood in 1983. A highly regarded tenured professor, widely published author, and international presenter on counseling and mission effectiveness in Catholic schools, he has served as Director of the Graduate Program in Education and Counseling at Villanova University. He holds a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from Temple University, and served in various leadership roles at Monsignor Bonner High School in Drexel Hill for ten years, and on several boards of independent schools in the Delaware Valley.
“As I enter my third term on the Board of Directors at St. Augustine Prep, I am honored to serve in this exciting leadership role. I hope during my time at the school to continue the work of the Board of Directors, Father Reilly, the friars, and our lay colleagues who preceded me and build the quality of its programs, and the endowment necessary to support it,” said Father Murray.
Father Donald F. Reilly, O.S.A., who has served as President of St. Augustine Prep since July 2011 was unanimously elected Head of School by the Board of Trustees at Malvern Preparatory School on Tuesday, November 22, 2016. Father Reilly professed vows as an Augustinian in 1967 and was ordained in 1974. His tenure at St. Augustine Prep is distinguished by the development of a Campus Master Plan which has provided a long-range vision for campus development, and includes the completion of the Navone Athletic Training Facility and the Vincent L. Buondonno Center. He has overseen a two-year institutional mission-centered self-study resulting in dual accreditation by the New Jersey Association of Independent Schools (NJAIS) and the Middle States Association (MSA).
“I am honored and humbled to be asked to serve as Malvern Prep’s next Head of School,” said Father Reilly. “Trusting in God, I look forward to continuing the exciting academic journey of innovation that Malvern Prep is taking, and hope to nurture that journey with a continued commitment to the Augustinian values of Truth, Unity, and Love. At the same time, I leave St. Augustine Prep with a heavy heart and am grateful for the friendship and love shown me by this community. I am delighted that my confrere, Father Murray, has accepted the invitation to serve as the next school leader at Saint Augustine Prep. He is an integrative thinker with strong academic values dedicated to teaching and service-learning. Father Murray will provide energetic, intellectual leadership and a commitment to our Augustinian mission at the Prep”.
These two appointments, which will take effect following graduation in June 2017, underscore significant steps forward for the two schools, and a reinforcement of the commitment of the Augustinians to our educational apostolate.