The Rev. Frank R. Haig, Jesuit astrophysicist at Loyola University Maryland, dies

Frederick N. Rasmussen, Baltimore Sun
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The Rev. Frank R. Haig, professor emeritus of physics at Loyola University Maryland and former president of two Jesuit institutions, died of cancer Feb. 28 at the Manresa Hall Jesuit Community in Philadelphia. He was 95.

“Father Haig was a relentlessly positive and a very engaging person to be around. He was always upbeat and intellectually curious,” said Joseph Ganem, physics professor and former department chair at Loyola.

Brian M. Oakes, vice president for advancement at Loyola, is also a graduate of the university. “Father Haig was just one of those professors who was a hallmark of a Loyola education,” Mr. Oakes said.
“His classes were always overfilled and hard to get into. He was unbelievably smart and was able to deliver high intellectual concepts in an understandable way.”

Frank Rawle Haig, son of Alexander Meigs Haig Sr., a lawyer, and Regina Arne Murphy Haig, an educator, was born and raised in Philadelphia where he graduated in 1946 from Lower Merion Senior High School in Lower Merion Township.

His brother was Alexander M. Haig Jr., President Richard M. Nixon’s chief of staff, NATO supreme commander, and President Ronald W. Reagan’s secretary of state.

When the Rev. Haig was 5, he told family members that he aspired to be a Jesuit astrophysicist.

In 1946, he entered the Society of Jesus at the Novitiate of St. Isaac Jogues in Wernersville, Pennsylvania, and was ordained a priest in 1960.
He received his licentiate in philosophy from the old Bellarmine College in Plattsburgh, New York, and his doctorate in physics from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

He also obtained a bachelor of sacred theology and a licentiate in sacred theology from Woodstock College, a seminary in Maryland.

From 1966 to 1969, the Rev. Haig, who had been president of Wheeling College, now Wheeling University, in West Virginia, joined the Loyola faculty as a physics professor in 1972.

In 1981, he left Loyola when he was named president of LeMoyne College in Syracuse, New York.

When he was at LeMoyne, he reached out to indigenous peoples and played a leading role in establishing an annual lecture on the Iroquois and offering scholarships to Native American students.

He returned to Loyola in 1987 and taught until 2005 when he was named professor emeritus, even though he continued to teach an astronomy course each semester.

“His astronomy classes for non-majors were very popular because they were visual,” Mr. Gamen said.

The Rev. Haig enjoyed playing Elton John’s “Rocket Man,” at the start of his astronomy class.

“Frank would go to class with a music player, and he felt that every class needed a theme song, and if you were a student in his class, you had a theme song and he changed them around,” Mr. Gamen said.

“He had a very creative, charming and warm personality,” Mr. Oakes said. “He was a larger-than-life type of guy who was a fixture at Loyola for years where he was both admired and respected.”

“It’s been a human interest from as far back as we can go to look at the sky and to look at the stars,” the Rev. Haig explained in a 2010 Loyola video.

“To study physics is to look at the universe that is an explosive world of extravagant spontaneity, a reality bursting with variety and overwhelming originality, a fullness overflowing with a multiplicity of the unexpected and the astonishing,” he said in the video.

“Frank followed the Jesuit view of the science of astronomy as a way to get closer to God — a way to better understand God’s creation — which was also a principle espoused by astronomer Johannes Kepler in his work,” Mr. Gamen told the Catholic Review.

The Rev. Haig, as a Jesuit, took vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, meaning he could not inherit anything from his brother Gen. Haig’s estate when he died in 2010.

“He did, however, have the opportunity to direct funds from a $1 million gift to create the Alexander M. Haig Jr., Endowment for Science, Faith, and Culture at Loyola — and he embraced that opportunity,” according to a statement from the university announcing the Rev. Haig’s death.

The Haig funding also supported Loyola’s annual Cosmos and Creation Conference which the Rev. Haig had been involved with since its founding in 1982.

In 2016, Father Haig received a lifetime achievement award from the Washington Academy of Sciences.

“He was easy to talk to and he talked to everyone,” Mr. Ganem said. “He loved social events and he liked attending summer picnics. He’d always come dressed as a priest and wearing a collar. I don’t think I ever saw him in civilian clothes.”

“His hobby was learning new languages,” said a niece, Barbara E. Haig, of Washington.

“He spoke Latin, of course, and learned Polish when we had a Polish pope. He spoke Spanish and had just started learning Turkish,” she said.

In a 2016 video interview marking his 70th anniversary as a Jesuit, the Rev. Haig shared his views about science and faith.

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“People who are interested in religion are almost automatically interested in science,” he said. “And people who are interested in science are going to be asking fundamental questions all the time, too. ‘What is life? What is the universe? How did the universe start?’

“All those are natural questions. But they’re also religious questions too. Because if you ask, ‘What is life?’ Do you mean just what are the molecules in life or do you mean, ‘What are the ideals with which we should live our life?'”

A funeral Mass was offered Saturday at St. Matthias Roman Catholic Church in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania.

A Memorial Mass will be offered April 10 at 12:10 p.m. in Loyola’s Alumni Memorial Chapel at 4501 N. Charles St.

In addition to Ms. Haig, he is survived by 13 other nieces and nephews.