Local Boy Makes Good

John J. Cavanaugh, an ambitious lad of 18, first talked the chauffeur into introducing him to Notre Dame's president. Then he talked the president, the Rev. John W. Cavanaugh (no relation), into giving him a job as his secretary so he could earn his way through college. Last week at 47, "young John"--now the Rev. John himself--became Notre Dame's 14th president.

Spare, handsome John Cavanaugh won a gold watch for leading his Notre Dame commerce class. On graduating, like a lot of Notre Dame boys, he signed on with the Studebaker Corp., the university's South Bend neighbor.

By the time he was 27, Cavanaugh was Studebaker's assistant advertising manager, but he tired of huckstering. Says he: "My job was to see how many cars our company could sell. Then I got to thinking. What difference would it make 50 years hence how many cars I sold or how much money I made?"

So young John went back to Notre Dame--to study for the priesthood. (His younger brother Francis, a Notre Dame classmate, is now the university's dean of Arts & Letters.) On the side, Father Cavanaugh bossed Notre Dame sports, liked to contribute amateur advice to football coach Frank Leahy.

Notre Dame's vice president for the past six years, Father Cavanaugh will now be president for six. The Holy Cross Congregation, which runs Notre Dame, likes to shake up its administrators regularly. Notre Dame's outgoing president, the Rev. J. Hugh O'Donnell, will get an academic assignment abroad.

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