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In her 40 years of service to the University, Louise Hannah helped to process tens of thousands of applications for undergraduate admission – all done while winning the hearts and friendships of generations of Boston College students and fellow employees along the way.
Affectionately known as “Mama Hannah” to her student charges, Hannah retired in August as supervisor of support services for the Office of Undergraduate Admission. She is one of the “heroes” of the University, says Director John L. Mahoney Jr.
“With the colleagues she supervised, she led through example when she could and through coaching and encouragement when she needed to,” Mahoney told several hundred people who gathered to honor Hannah at a retirement fete. “Her colleagues trusted her, took direction from her and knew from her demeanor amid the daunting piles of work and the stress at deadline times that it would all get done. And it always did.”
But Hannah’s most valuable contribution was that of coordinator and mentor to the legions of work-study students that she supervised over the years, Mahoney said. “Louise has been an important presence in the lives of hundreds of students through the years,” he said, “in some cases as important as any faculty advisor or personal counselor.”
Hannah’s philosophy for interacting with her work-study students was simple, yet effective: personal interest and interaction. “We were always good for each other,” she says of her charges.
“They were away from home and I was at BC. So, whenever they had issues — with money, schoolwork or just everyday problems — I would meet them after work and we would chat. I always tried to work with students who might need a little bit of support.
“I sometimes had to keep them under control,” she laughs. “They all did pretty well.”
Hannah, who grew up in Augusta, Ga., came to Boston in 1963 to live with a cousin and finish her high school education. After working for an electrical company in Brighton, she was one of five persons who scored highest in qualification examinations and was accepted into a state-operated program that funded advanced educational and career opportunities. Through this program, she took several courses at Boston College and was originally hired as a work-study assistant in BC’s Undergraduate Admission office, then located in Gasson Hall.
“We had typewriters in the office back in Gasson,” she laughs, “and maybe a couple of thousand applications each year. We did everything by hand.”
By the late 1970s the admission operation began to grow and the office was moved to more spacious quarters in Lyons Hall. “I think we went up to 16,000 applications or so when Doug Flutie was here,” she said of the popular BC football player of the mid-1980s. “We got a bigger staff and our first computer terminals.
“Then we went to Devlin Hall,” Hannah says, “where everything really changed. We went up to 30,000 applications, state-of-the-art computers, mailing houses — it was a whole new world.”
In spite of the technical and logistical advances, Hannah never forgot her personal touch with her student employees that flourished throughout her long career at the University. She proudly points to her very first work-study assistant, Christine Neylon ’75 – now Professor Christine O’Brien, chair of the business law faculty in the Carroll School of Management.
“To this day we still are the best of friends,” Hannah says. “I went to her wedding. I went to her sister’s wedding. We still do things together. I just became so close to Christine and her family. She’s a wonderful person – but at that time, some 40 years ago, she needed a big sister, and I was her big sister.”
While at BC, Hannah played key roles with the Black Faculty and Staff Association and the Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship Committee. She frequently represented the Admission Office at AJCU Conferences on Multicultural Affairs held at various Jesuit colleges and universities.
Hannah says she still gets letters, family photos and holiday cards from many of her former work-study aides. “One of my students was even my accountant for 27 years,” she says with a hearty laugh. “I used to send my tax papers to him down in New Jersey and he would do up my returns and send them back to me in Boston.
“People are always coming back to visit me,” she says. “When they come back for different things – football games or whatever – they always let me know when they are in town. When I travel they always say ‘Come and stay with me.’ I have met their parents and their families. I have been blessed at Boston College. I love those students. They made my job easy because we always worked as a team.”
Hannah has no plans to slow down her pace in retirement. “I’m not a person who stays in bed and watches TV,” she says.
She owns a three-family home in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood and is an active and long-time volunteer at Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous and Overeaters Anonymous programs in Boston.
“I have never had a drink in my life nor ever done any type of drugs,” she says, “but I have been involved with these programs and I will be a part of them until I can’t do it anymore.”
The active Hannah also works out three days a week at Boston’s Reggie Lewis Sports Center and frequently lunches and travels with old friends from BC.
“Boston College is a wonderful community,” Hannah says. “The people here have been great role models for me over the years.” The feeling, say her many admirers, is mutual.