MILWAUKEE — The celebration of life for Marquette University president Michael Lovell was held on Thursday, June 20, at the Church of the Gesu on Marquette’s campus.
President Lovell died in Italy on June 9, after a three-year battle with cancer. He was 57.
He became ill while on a trip to Rome with his wife, Amy, and members of the Society of Jesus and the Board of Trustees, for a Jesuit formation pilgrimage.
“President Lovell’s decade of leadership at Marquette was marked by a deep commitment to innovation, entrepreneurship, and community renewal and development — consistent with the university’s Catholic, Jesuit mission that animated him,” the university said in a statement. “An entrepreneur at heart, President Lovell pushed Marquette and Milwaukee to ask what could be rather than settling for the status quo.”
Lovell became the 24th president of Marquette University in 2014.
Hearts were heavy on the Marquette campus, as well as at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Lovell served as the dean of the engineering program and the chancellor of the university. He was chancellor at UW-Milwaukee for three years.
UW-Milwaukee’s current chancellor, Mark Mone, was a close friend and collaborator of Lovell’s. He said many emotions hit him when he got word of Lovell’s passing.
“Deeply saddened, dismayed, the sadness for his family for our community, certainly from our partnerships, but I do think — and it took a while to process this — but I think one of the great hallmarks of Mike [is that his] legacy is going to live on in institutionalized ways,” Mone said.
“He really changed the landscape of higher-ed and partnerships in Milwaukee forever,” Mone added.
Mone and Lovell also bonded through a shared personal experience. Before Lovell was diagnosed with sarcoma in 2021, Mone was diagnosed with lymphoma.
“When you have a dear friend who is going through that, you can appreciate having been a cancer victim — and we hope survivor for a longtime. You just have a bond, that it’s hard to explain outside of that,” he said. “But it was something that did bring us closer and I’m sad to see what has happened with Mike on this journey.”.
Phyllis King, associate vice chancellor of academic affairs at UW-Milwaukee, also knew and loved Lovell.
“His mission in life was to develop human potential. He saw the best in everybody and he was all about developing other people, bringing out the best in other people,” said King. “He was a strong advocate for Women’s advancement in the workplace, a community collaborator and a trailblazer in his own right.”
“He would join the students with their workouts, he would run the hill, which is across from Bradford Beach — a very steep hill up to the water tower,” she said. “He would run with the student athletes in their workouts and their conditioning, and it was fun for the students to see him and to see his support,” she added.
Both she and Mone, and so many others, vowed to make sure Lovell’s strong legacy lives on.
“His work will live forever in the community, for the betterment,” said Mone.
