We are sorry to report that Emeritus Professor Joseph P. McKenna passed away on April 11, 2008. Dr. McKenna began his academic career when he won a scholarship to Harvard College in 1940. He was drafted during his sophomore year and fought with the U.S. Army's 113th Artillery Battalion as a sergeant in Germany and Central Europe.
He returned to Harvard under the GI Bill, completed his undergraduate studies and earned master's and doctoral degrees in economics. He came to Saint Louis University in 1955 as chairman of the Department of Economics after spending five years at the University of Minnesota. Over the next several years he taught at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Bologna, Italy, and at Boston College and Virginia Tech, returning to St. Louis in 1967 as professor of economics at the University of Missouri-St. Louis until his retirement in 1985.
He volunteered many hours at Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital, and proudly wore his 18-gallon Pheresis Donor pin from the Red Cross Blood Bank. His rewards were the students who went on to successful careers in business and education.
He had two loves — family and teaching.