Alice Bourke Hayes, Ph.D.: 1937-2023

Alice Bourke Hayes, Ph.D., Saint Louis University’s first female Provost, died on Sept. 24, 2023. She was 85. 

Hayes came to SLU in 1989, serving for six years as the vice president of academic affairs and provost. She was the first provost at SLU since 1974 and the first woman in the role. She was also the first lay person to be second in command at a Jesuit university in the United States.

Hayes had a strong commitment to both Catholic education and science. She spent 27 years at Loyola University Chicago before accepting the position of provost at SLU. Hayes had worked with then-SLU President Lawrence Biondi, S.J. when both were at Loyola.

She was named SLU’s Woman of the Year in 1995. In the letters nominating Hayes, colleagues noted her leadership skills and her work with faculty members.

“Dr. Hayes has mastered an understanding of virtually every aspect of the University, from academics to health care to budget to student services to human resource management,” one nomination read.

She left SLU in 1995 to become the second president of the University of San Diego. When leaving SLU, Hayes said she was proud of her role enhancing the role of faculty in university governance.

“We’ve developed a lot of ways of working with the faculty – new methods such as the president’s leadership conferences, the special joint committees,” she said. “I think that’s a very important development that has been good for the University.”

Hayes returned to SLU in 2002 to serve as commencement speaker and receive an honorary Doctor of Laws degree. She received honorary doctorates from seven other universities over the course of her career. 

Hayes served as USD’s president until 2003. According to USD, more square footage was added to the campus during her tenure than in any other era since the campus was first built. The University endowment also grew from $40 million to more than $100 million.

Hayes was born in Chicago on December 31, 1937, to William Joseph and Mary Alice (Cawley) Bourke. She received a bachelor’s degree in biology from Mundelein College in 1959; a master’s degree in botany from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana in 1960, and a doctorate in biological sciences from Northwestern University in 1972.  

From 1960-62, Hayes conducted mycology research for the Municipal Tuberculosis Sanitarium.

Hayes taught at Loyola early in her career before spending two years at Northwestern during the 1960s as a National Science Foundation Fellow and as a visiting lecturer. She returned to Loyola University Chicago in 1971. During her tenure, Hayes served as a department chair, dean, and as the Vice President of Academic Affairs. 

Hayes was a member of NASA’s Space Biology Program and served on advisory panels of the National Science Foundation. 

During her time in St. Louis, Hayes served on the boards of the Pulitzer Publishing Company, St. Louis Science Center, the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis and Catholic Charities.

In the Autumn 1990 edition of Universitas, Hayes reflected on how history might remember her time at SLU. She said provosts are invisible to history but that she hoped her time at the University was remembered for the work of SLU’s people.

“When they talk about the great ideas of this time, I hope some are produced by people who were here. Scientists and humanists don’t know what papers, what ideas will be important to the future,” she said. “Maybe what is produced while I’m here will be judged by history to be great; or maybe it will merely be personally and professionally fulfilling. Either result is fine. But what a university is about, and what you really hope they’ll say, is: Great ideas were produced. Great teachers taught. And they cared about their students.”

Hayes was preceded in death by her husband, John J. Hayes, who passed away in 1981; her parents; and her brother Jack. She is survived by her sisters Gerry (the late Bill) Taylor and Joan; nieces, nephews, great nephews, great nieces and cousins.

A visitation will be held from 4-8 p.m. Sunday, Oct.  1, 2023, at Smith Corcoran Funeral Home, 6150 N. Cicero Avenue, Chicago, Illinois. A Funeral Mass is scheduled for 10 a.m. Monday, Oct. 2, at St. Mary of the Woods Catholic Church.