Holy Cross Recognizes Alumni for Outstanding Professional Achievements and Service

WORCESTER, Mass. – Four graduates of the College of the Holy Cross — including a psychiatrist breaking new ground in treating schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease ... an internationally-recognized expert in medical genetics and cancer ... a top Wall Street attorney who became a deacon at a parish church ... the young leader of an interfaith agency working for justice and peace worldwide — will all receive a Sanctae Crucis Award, the highest non-degree recognition bestowed by the College on an alumnus or alumna.

The ninth annual presentation of the awards will take place on Friday, May 5 at the College.

This year’s recipients are:

Joseph T. Coyle, Jr., M.D. ’65, Outstanding Professional Achievement and Community Service The Eben S. Draper Professor of Psychiatry and Neuroscience at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Coyle is at the forefront of research on treatments for such conditions as schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease. The author of more than 500 scientific articles and editor of seven books, Dr. Coyle is the editor in chief of the Archives of General Psychiatry. Following graduation from Holy Cross, he pursued his medical degree at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore. After an internship in pediatrics, he spent three years at the National Institutes of Health as a research fellow. Returning to Johns Hopkins, Dr. Coyle completed his psychiatric residency and subsequently joined the faculty there. Named a professor of neuroscience and psychiatry in 1980, he became the director of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in 1982; in 1985, he was named the Distinguished Service Professor.

Dr. Coyle joined the staff of Harvard Medical School in 1991, becoming the chair of the consolidated department of psychiatry, which included the nine hospital programs of psychiatry affiliated with the school. He is the recipient of the John Jacob Abel Award from the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics; the Gold Medal Award from the Society for Biological Psychiatry; the Efron Award from the American College of europsychopharmacology; the Foundation Fund Research Award from the American Psychiatric Association; the McAlpin Award from the National Mental Health Association; the Salmon Award from the New York Academy of Medicine; and the Pasarow Foundation Award for Neuroscience.

He lives in Cambridge, Mass.

John J. Mulvihill, M.D. ’65, Outstanding Professional Achievement and Community Service Dr. Mulvihill is one of the world’s leading experts in medical genetics, particularly in the area of the genetics of human cancer. Following graduation from Holy Cross, Dr. Mulvihill received a bachelor’s degree in medical science from Dartmouth Medical School in 1967 and his M.D. from the University of Washington Medical School in 1969. After completing an internship in medicine and pediatrics at the University of Washington Hospital, he spent two years as a research associate at the epidemiology branch of the National Cancer Institute; in 1972, he completed his residency training in pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. From 1974-1990, Dr. Mulvihill served as the chief of the clinical genetics section of the National Cancer Institute. Concurrently, from 1983-1989, he served as the director of the National Institutes of Health’s Inter-institute Medical Genetics Training Program and the director of the National Board Review Courses for Medical Genetics.

In 1990, Dr. Mulvihill founded the department of human genetics in the graduate school of public health at the University of Pittsburgh. In 1998, he became the Kimberly V. Talley/ Children’s Medical Research Institute Chair in Genetics and professor of pediatrics at the University of Oklahoma Health Science Center. The author of more than 270 papers and 150 scientific abstracts, Dr. Mulvihill was selected to revise and re-edit the definitive catalog of cancers known to genetic components, titled The Catalog of Human Cancer Genes. The recipient of the United States Public Health Service’s Distinguished Service Medal, he has been a member of the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Advanced Study in China.

He lives in Oklahoma City.

William O. Murphy ’56, Outstanding Professional Achievement and Community Service Following graduation from Holy Cross, Murphy received his law degree from Columbia University in 1960. During his 35 year career as a top attorney on Wall Street, Murphy specialized in bank and acquisition finance and also worked on major cases such as the corporate reorganization of the businesses of the Hunt brothers of Texas and the restructuring of the international debt of the former Republic of Yugoslavia and the Republic of the Philippines. At the pinnacle of his career as a partner and member of the Executive Committee of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, Murphy made a decision to answer a lifelong calling; he retired from the law firm and enrolled in the Yale Divinity School to pursue studies in theology.

Ordained a deacon in the Diocese of Bridgeport, Conn. in 1995, Murphy was assigned to St. Joseph, a multicultural parish in South Norwalk, Conn. As a full-time deacon, Murphy’s principal pastoral duties include preaching and assisting at Mass and celebrating baptisms and marriages. He also serves as the director of religious education programs and works on parish finances. During the last 10 years, he as served on the Board of the Norwalk Emergency Shelter, the Norwalk community action agency and Side By Side Charter School and as a member of the Food Fuel & Shelter Council of Norwalk. He is also a director of the Gregorian University Foundation and the Frank J. Scallon Foundation which provides scholarships to local area schools.

He lives in Rowayton, Conn.

Joseph F. Cistone ’87, Outstanding Young Alumnus Cistone currently serves as the executive director of the International Partners in Mission (IPM), a worldwide, interfaith non-governmental organization that works for justice and peace — with offices in the United States, India, Italy, Kenya and El Salvador. At the start of his career, he had worked for the Greenpeace organization. Receiving his master of arts degree from Yale University, Cistone worked on refugee immigration and reception issues with the Caritas Internationalis in Vatican City. In 1991, he became the director of Fondazione, Italy’s only independent and inter-religious full-service center for refugees and forced migrants. In 1995, Cistone assumed the position of associate director of the International Office for Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation, where he served as a delegate to the United Nations’ World Food Summit.

Returning to his native Cleveland in 1997, Cistone became the vice president of capital, endowment and philanthropic programs for the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland. He served in this capacity until 2001 when he accepted the position of executive director and chief executive officer of International Partners in Mission. Under his leadership, IPM has expanded greatly — with programs in 25 communities across five continents. Cistone is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the Gregorian University in Rome.

He lives in Cleveland.

ABOUT THE SANCTAE CRUCIS AWARDS: The Sanctae Crucis Awards were established in 1998 to recognize the distinguished achievements of alumni.  "The primary goals of the Sanctae Crucis Awards are to honor outstanding alumni and in so doing recognize and celebrate the distinctive mission of Holy Cross," says Frank Vellaccio, senior vice president, who presented the awards to recipients. The Holy Cross Mission Statement is the foundation for the awards program, which honors alumni who are leaders in business, professional or civic life, who live by the highest intellectual and ethical standards, and who are committed to the service of faith and promotion of justice. Past recipients have included: John Higgins ’76, Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist for the Chicago Sun Times; Paul La Camera ’64, president and general manager, WCVB-TV Boston; Peter J. O’Connor ’63, founder and executive director of the Fair Share Housing Development Corporation; and Joyce O’Shaughnessy ’78, a leading breast cancer researcher and practitioner.