Justin Albert Driscoll
Justin Albert Driscoll was an American Roman Catholic clergyman. He served as President of Loras College and Bishop of Fargo.Biography
Justin Driscoll was born in Bernard, Iowa, to William and Agnes Driscoll. He studied at Loras College in Dubuque, from where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1942. He completed his postgraduate studies at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. He was ordained to the priesthood on July 28, 1945. He then served as a teacher at Loras Academy until 1948, when he became secretary to Archbishop Henry Rohlman. In 1952 he earned his Ph.D. from Catholic University.
Returning to Iowa, he served as secretary to Archbishop Leo Binz and superintendent of Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Dubuque. He was president of Loras College from 1967 to 1970. During his administration, he gave full scholarships to twelve insufficiently vetted African American students, who occupied a building on campus when they realized that many of them were going to flunk. A Loras committee decided to expel them. But the involvement of Jesse Jackson in Chicago short-circuited that possibility. Ultimately, the insufficiently overseen scholarship program was dropped. He was eventually forced to suspend the twelve students. The semester length of the suspension and other factors made him unpopular with some faculty, who then sought his resignation.
On September 8, 1970, Driscoll was appointed the fifth Bishop of Fargo, North Dakota, by Pope Paul VI. He received his episcopal consecration on the following October 18 from Archbishop Luigi Raimondi, with Archbishops Leo Binz and James Joseph Byrne serving as co-consecrators. He remained as bishop for the next fourteen years, until his death at age 64.
