Dr. Maguire believed strongly in diversity and reflects back on a retreat that would ensure diversity in the SUNY OW community.
Dr. John D. Maguire, president of SUNY Old Westbury from 1970-1981, passed away on October 26, 2018 in Pomona, California. He was 86.
A friend of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Dr. Maguire was heavily involved in civil rights and the movement for equality. The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) honored Maguire’s years of service as board member. Born in Montgomery, Alabama, Maguire was committed to the Civil Rights movement as a teenager and participated in the 1961 Freedom Rides for equality.
Maguire’s last visit to SUNY OW was in 2011, where he delivered the commencement address to graduates. Maguire was proud of the diversity on campus and that the college would continue to follow on the course of “the riddle of human justice.”
Included in the “The Ethics of Engagement” textbook is Dr. Maguire’s 1980 address titled “What Old Westbury Is Really About.” Required for every freshman to read, he promises that SUNY OW:
- was committed to examining civic as well as intellectual values
- was committed to educating, not training
- operated with the belief that remembering, creating and imagining led to new understanding, and
- above all, that Old Westbury educated people to lead resourceful, courageous and compassionate lives.
Following Dr. Maguire’s passing, current SUNY OW President Dr. Calvin O. Butts, III said in a statement to the campus: “He represented the best of what is at the very core of the Old Westbury experience — a belief that all humankind shares this Earth equally, and that we must focus both on what brings us together and what divides us….”
“I am proud to say I have followed in the footsteps of Dr. John D. Maguire as president of an institution dedicated to solving ‘the riddle of human justice’ as we endeavor to stimulate a passion for learning and a commitment to building a more just and sustainable world among our students. As I lament his passing, I will also remember all the good he has done across a lifetime of service and commitment to others.”
Dr. Maguire pictured with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in a undated photo. Photo credit: NAACP LDF.
