Fairfield University’s last original faculty member, Father Victor Leeber, will be moving on to Westin at the end of this month.
The football team is mourning his loss.
“It’s really hard to see him leave,” said Michael Cerchio, ’03, a football player. “It’s going to be awkward going from seeing him every day on campus to not seeing him at all. I just hope that he knows how much he really means to the Athletic Department and everything that he has brought to the university.”
Teammate Matt Giugliano, ’03, agreed.
“The one thing that pops into my mind about Father Leeber is that he really, truly cares about football and this team,” said Giugliano. “Every time you see him walking around campus, he is wearing a big smile. It’s kind of rough to hear he’s leaving.”
In his heyday, Leeber was originally set to teach at Fairfield Prep. However, administrators at a new university on the campus decided that they needed new blood to teach when it opened in 1947.
During his first year teaching at Fairfield, Father Leeber worked in the foreign language department as a Spanish teacher. The next year, his duties expanded as he also took on French and Italian.
In the next several years, he went on to found and chair the Modern Languages and Literatures Department, adding many more languages to the curriculum.
In the course of his time spent educating Fairfield students, Father Leeber also studied at Fordham University and Boston College to receive his master’s degree and studied abroad in Spain to receive his doctorate. He studied in Florence and South America as well.
Father Leeber was also the first true advocate of sports here at Fairfield University. In his career, he began both the cross country team, Fairfield’s first organized sport of which he was the first coach, and the club football team. He also was Chaplain of sports on campus.
Father Leeber loves looking back and remembering how Fairfield has changed as a school.
From the first class he taught, to the students now entering the academic buildings, he has sees commonalities between them all. Father Leeber knows that all of the students are being taught, on top of academics, character, a trait he values immensely.
He can also tell that the parents of these students are proud of the fact that they have sent their child here knowing they will receive a good education.
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