Remembering Paul Milan

SU President Stephen Sundborg, S.J., shared the following with faculty and staff today:

Paul Milan, a beloved Seattle University colleague for more than 50 years, passed away on Saturday, May 30, after a long battle with brain cancer.

Paul was an extraordinary teacher, scholar, leader and colleague, and he exemplified a deep commitment to our Jesuit mission and the ideals of educating students in a holistic and transformative way. A longstanding faculty member in French language and literature, who also served as chair of the Modern Languages and Cultures Department, Paul co-founded the French in France program in 1972, which he helped to extend into the current French in France and Africa program.

Deeply committed to cross-cultural learning, Paul helped to develop and coordinate the International Studies program, creating many opportunities for students to study abroad and engage in service and discovery. He was a key leader in the university’s international Mexico Mission Trek service trips to Tijuana, collaborating with Esperanza International, and served as faculty director of Xavier Global House on campus. This commitment continues through the scholarship that he established, the Paul Breslin Milan Legacy Scholarship Fund, as a permanent endowed fund supporting students studying abroad.

For more tributes to Paul Milan, visit Arts and Sciences.

Paul contributed greatly to the fabric of our university community, and he was honored for his service with the LeRoux Chair in 1999, and with the McGoldrick Fellowship in 2012, both of which recognize those who help to strengthen and advance our Jesuit educational mission. But his most enduring legacy is found in the lives of the great many students who knew him, and were transformed by his teaching, his insight, his inspiration and his encouragement.

A gathering to remember and celebrate Paul’s life will occur in late summer or fall. In the meantime if you seek to honor his memory, his family invites you to consider making a contribution to either the Milan Legacy Scholarship Fund or Esperanza International.

Rector of the Arrupe Jesuit Community Arturo Araujo, S.J., shares the following:

The Arrupe Jesuit Community is very saddened by the death of Paul Milan, the very first LeRoux chair in the History of Seattle University. This appointment was made at Father Bill Leroux's own suggestion because Father Bill recognized that Paul was a true contributor to our school's Ignatian vision of faculty and staff collaboration in our common mission. We join with Paul's family and the entire university in mourning the passing of this wonderful friend and colleague.