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At the fifth annual New England Commencement on May 23, Thomas Aquinas College posthumously inducted Eugene F. Horan into the Order of St. Albert. 

“Mr. Horan left much of his estate to the student financial aid endowment, which he established before his death, ensuring perpetual access to the robust Catholic liberal education that he cared so deeply about,” said College President Paul J. O’Reilly. “This means that Mr. Horan’s legacy lives on through you, students and graduates. In this sense, you become a part of Mr. Horan’s family; a family who, through its generations, has been faithful to Christ and His church.” 

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Established in 1998, the Order of St. Albert is named for St. Thomas Aquinas’s own teacher. Membership recognizes those benefactors who have shown exceptional generosity to the College and its program of Catholic liberal education. Members receive a cast-bronze bust of St. Albert the Great, and their names are engraved on the base of a statue of the saint that occupies a corner of the California campus’s academic quadrangle. 

A Faithful Life 

Eugene F. Horan was born on Valentine’s Day, 1931, the fifth son of Alice and Michael Horan in Staten Island, New York. After graduating from St. Peter’s High School and Fordham University, he worked as an executive for the National Office of the Boy Scouts of America and as vice president of community relations for Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Upon his retirement in 1998, the hospital presented him with an Award of Honor for his outstanding service to the community.  

That year, Mr. Horan moved to Monroe Township, New Jersey, where he served for 11 years as editor of The Rossmoor News. Over the course of his life, he was a faithful pillar in his community: president of the Staten Island Catholic Interracial Council, president of the Jersey Shore Public Relations and Advertising Association, founding chairman of the interfaith Prayer Breakfast for Life, and publicity chairman of the Catholic Society of Rossmoor.  

“My brother, Fr. Henry Graebe (Archdiocese of Philadelphia) and I were greatly impacted by the faithful witness of our Uncle Gene, who couldn’t say enough about his admiration for Thomas Aquinas College,” recalls Rev. Brian A. Graebe, a priest of the Archdiocese of New York and Mr. Horan’s grandnephew. Mr. Horan learned about the College through its high rankings in U.S. News & World Report and The Princeton Review. Inspired by its academic excellence and fidelity to Catholic teaching, he began financially supporting the College in 2017.  

“Gene did not graduate from Thomas Aquinas College. The Catholic university Gene attended and loved moved away from fidelity to Church teaching, a development that deeply saddened him,” said Alice Graebe, his goddaughter and niece, on Commencement Day, upon receiving the award in his honor.&�Բ�����;“Gene was a devout Catholic, and his faith impacted every aspect of what he did in life.” 

In 2020, he established the Eugene F. Horan Endowment, a perpetual fund for student financial aid. Although illness kept Mr. Horan from visiting either of the College’s campuses, he took great joy in reading the stories and letters of TAC students who benefitted from his generosity, often sharing them with family. “What impacted him the most was the students’ sincere promise that they would continue to pray for him,” Mrs. Graebe noted. “Gene would treasure these letters, and every week when I would visit him, he would read them to me.”  

Mr. Horan died on June 6, 2024, at the age of 93. A member of the College’s St. Thérèse of Lisieux Legacy Society, he left the majority of his estate to the Horan Endowment — a testimony to his abiding concern for, and dedication to, the students of Thomas Aquinas College. 

… and an Award in Gratitude 

Halfway through the 2026 Commencement ceremony on the New England campus, Dr. O’Reilly inducted Mr. Horan into the Order of St. Albert, presenting the posthumous award to members of his family: Mrs. Graebe; her husband, Hank; and Mr. Horan’s nephew, Vincent Smith.  

“Membership in the Order of St. Albert is reserved for those benefactors whose generosity to Thomas Aquinas College has been exceptional,”&�Բ�����;said Dr. O’Reilly. “For, just as St. Thomas would not have risen to the heights that he did without the aid of his mentor, so, too, Thomas Aquinas College could not accomplish the good that it does without the generosity of these benefactors.” 

Upon receiving the bust of St. Albert the Great in honor of her beloved uncle, Mrs. Graebe came to the podium to offer her gratitude to the College and its students. “We are honored to stand in his place here today,” she said. “I hope that, through his generosity, this school will continue to foster solid, faithful Catholic education. This is a testimony to his dedication and commitment to each of you.”