Hagmaier Leaves Catholic Center Post as Chaplain

The Rev. George G. Hagmaier has resigned as chaplain of the Harvard-Radcliffe Catholic Center for reasons of health. He had been chaplain for only a month.

Hagmaier approached the Rev. Joseph I. Collins, pastor of St. Paul's Church and former chaplain of the Center, earlier this week and asked to be relieved of his duties.

He met Tuesday with the five-man executive committee of the Center's Board of Directors, and they agreed that Hagmaier should leave Harvard and return to a Paulist residence.

A nationally-known lecturer and author on marriage counseling and sex education. Hagmaier came to Harvard last month from the Catholic University of America in Washington.

His appointment marked the end of a year's search by a committee of faculty members, students and alumni -- the first time in this country that laymen had been given a say in the selection of a college chaplain. That committee will now be reconvened to search for Hagmaier's successor, Collins said last night.

For the time being, the duties of the chaplaincy will be divided among Collins (who became the first full-time Catholic chaplain here in 1960, the year the center on Arrow Street was opened) and three assistant pastors of St. Paul's Church -- the Rev. Charles Sheehy, the Rev. William Chevalier and the Rev. David Noonan.

Hagmaier was slated to head a fund drive for the Center, with the goal of making it financially independent. (It now receives support from St. Paul's Church.) Collins said last night that the opening of the drive will have to be delayed.