“ If you take the power of love and combine that with spiritual soundness, dedication, and courage, you have the concepts that make good men or women great. It’ s really the stuff that truly great leaders are made of. I began to learn this at Fordham Prep: the strength and talents you have been given are God’ s gifts to you. What you do with those strengths and talents will be your gifts back to God.”
the consequences of their actions.” It’ s an ethos that has carried Moglia for five decades- through successful careers as both a football coach and a business executive on Wall Street.
Moglia’ s support of the Prep has been steadfast and generous, as have his gifts of time and talent. Joe has served on the Fordham Prep Board of Trustees as a member of its Executive Committee, as a well as member of the Prep’ s Shea- McDonough Planned Giving Society. He has addressed the Prep’ s Wall Street Forum at the Yale Club of New York City and also delivered the Prep’ s 2005 commencement address which he closed with this statement:
If you take the power of love and combine that with spiritual soundness, dedication, and courage, you have the concepts that make good men or women great. It’ s really the stuff that truly great leaders are made of. I began to learn this at Fordham Prep: the strength and talents you have been given are God’ s gifts to you. What you do with those strengths and talents will be your gifts back to God.
A REFLECTION BY …
COVER STORY
Joe Moglia is a great American success story and Fordham Prep is a vital part of his story.
We were in the same home room class, 1C, in freshman year. Joe had a maturity as a freshman( not that he didn’ t occasionally get goofy like the rest of us) and early on, exhibited a tremendous competitive streak. He excelled at both football and baseball and was a good student.
We both moved on to the Greek Honors program in sophomore year with a group of extremely talented classmates, so many of whom moved on to very successful academic and business careers. The teachers we had for those three years were phenomenal. Joe wasn’ t very vocal in that group as he had concerns about a slight stammer that some mistook for lack of ability. Wow, were they wrong.
A couple of things that stood out about Joe in high school were his drive and an ability to focus. These traits, along with the advantage of coming from a wonderful family, have been a big part of his success in both football and business.
Joe paid for his Fordham University education by working in the Post Office. And he spent time as an assistant coach at the Prep doing what he loved, coaching young football players. After graduation, as he was progressing to be a head coach at a high school in Delaware, he focused intensely on his public speaking skills. He told me years later, that his goal at the time was to get a standing ovation every time he spoke. He turned what had been a slight deficit into a huge advantage.
At age 34, Joe transitioned from Dartmouth Defensive Coordinator to a Merrill Lynch training program filled with Ivy League MBAs. An unusual move to say the least. Joe brought those speaking skills, an incredible work ethic, maturity and natural leadership to the table. Adding those skills to the intense desire to win that fueled his coaching success, Merrill Lynch upper management quickly recognized they had hired someone with huge upside.
When Joe was moving up at Merrill Lynch, we kept in touch and compared notes on what was going on in each of our lives and careers. A couple of guys from the Bronx and Queens who didn’ t expect to be in the positions we were in. It wasn’ t that often we were in the same city at the same time but we had some great conversations( and laughs too) when we got together. I marveled at Joe’ s successful move from football to financial services and how he kept moving up.
I doubt there was a single time we didn’ t credit our parents and our years at Fordham Prep for whatever success we achieved. For that reason, the generosity Joe has shown towards the Prep in so many ways is not only impressive but important. Like many of us, I believe he wants to see deserving students whose families are not able to afford Prep tuition, have an opportunity for a values based, Jesuit education that he was so fortunate to have received.
Let’ s hope his and others’ generosity will help Fordham Prep continue to create more great American success stories.
Dennis FitzSimons’ 67 Former Chairman & CEO, Tribune Company; Chairman of the Board of the Robert R. McCormick Foundation
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