Dr. Leo Ferrari was many things – professor, scholar, author and St. Augustine expert. Ferrari’s memorable wit and passion left their mark on the STU community.
Ferrari recently passed away, and The Aquinian felt it important to pay tribute to a man who, in the words of his friend, didn’t take life too seriously.
Frank Cronin, Ferrari’s former colleague and friend, spoke at his funeral. He sent a copy of his remarks to theAQ.
“Leo looked down on the human lot and the world in which it found itself with a humorous, jovial glint in his eyes. Do not take it too seriously, and find the bit of comedy in everything,” Cronin said. “While an apple a day might keep the doctor away, a laugh a day will certainly keep us hale and hearty, and perhaps a bit more sane in this crazy world of ours.”
Many people speak of Ferrari’s zest for life and philosophy.
A philosophy professor at STU from 1961 to 1995, Ferrari was known to have long conversations about his favourite topic- St. Augustine.
“His scholarly irreverence was directed primarily at St. Augustine, a Western Father of the Christian Church, who almost single handily orchestrated the character and structure of Western culture for the next seven hundred years,” Cronin said.
According to Cronin, Ferrari challenged the “reverential position that Augie held in our culture”.
“Leo was convinced that Augustine had exercised a negative and debilitating influence on Western culture and its Christian religion,” Cronin said. “And yet . . . Leo loved Augustine who, like the hound of heaven, pursued him relentlessly.”
Ferrari also worked alongside his wife on a book about living with Alzheimer disease, which he developed later in life.
It was Ferrari who made Cronin’s transition to STU smooth. Ferrari was the person students and faculty turned to when they felt like engaging in deep discussion.
“He taught me that, truly, there was an academic and philosophical core to St. Thomas University,” he said. “It sounds almost as if I were a student of his. Formally, no – informally, yes. But more than that, Leo was my friend. I was his friend. And, as befitting two irreverent philosophers, our friendship was very rocky at times. It was very smooth at times. I, at least, grew through his friendship, as I know did his other friends and many of his former students.”
Dr. Barry Craig, vice-president academic at STU engaged in some of these philosophical discussions with Ferrari while he was at STU.
Craig described Ferrari as courageous, intelligent and witty – three traits which made him extremely memorable.
“He was passionate about his scholarship,” said Craig. “He was a meticulous and learned researcher. He had read the vast body of Augustine’s writings many times in the original Latin and knew it thoroughly.”
According to Craig, Ferrari put STU on the map.
“It is indisputable that St. Thomas University is known by a great many people around the world because of our association with the scholarship of Leo Ferrari.”
Cronin sums up his remarks with a bit of humour Ferrari would have been proud of.
“So how do I think of Leo now? I think of him sitting on the clouds of heaven ferociously engaging St. Augustine in debate, and telling him – Augie, that is – that the world is still plodding along, irreverently and jovially.”
