Andrew A. Molloy
Obituary in the Poughkeepsie Journal, August 2006.
Received the Breath of Life
30 March 1930 New York City
Called to Accept the Marist Brotherhood
26 July 1944
Married Rosemary Boccalatte
Hartford CT -
19 November 1966
Was Commended to God
19 August 2006
Vassar Hospital, Poughkeepsie NY
Mass of Christian Burial
23 August 2006
Our Lady of Wisdom Chapel
Marist College
Interred in St Sylvia's Cemetery Tivoli NY
Andrew A. Molloy
MILAN - Andrew A. Molloy, 76, of Milan died Saturday, August 19, 2006 at Vassar Brothers Medical Center
in Poughkeepsie, after a lengthy heart illness. Andrew was a member of the Marist Brothers from 1946
until 1966. During his time as a brother, Andrew received a BA from Marist College in 1951. Following
graduation, Andrew held numerous teaching positions including Central Catholic H.S. in Lawrence, MA
from 1951 -1953, and Bishop DuBois H.S. in NYC from 1953-1956. Andrew began graduate studies at
Catholic University, Washington D.C., in 1957, and received a PhD in Chemistry in 1961. Andrew's
teaching career continued at Marist College from 1960-1966 where he was Asst. Professor of Chemistry
and Department Chair. In 1966, Andrew accepted a position as Associate Professor of Chemistry at Elmira
College, Elmira, NY and received tenure in 1969. He also served as Interim Academic Dean from 1977-
1979 and the Dean of Graduate and Adult Education from 1979-1980. In 1980, Andrew returned to Marist
College as Academic Vice President. In 1985 he rejoined the faculty as a Professor of Chemistry and later
served as Divisional Chair and then Dean of Science. Notably, Andrew was awarded a $1.9 million
National Science Foundation Grant in 1997 to implement Science on the Move, a program involving area
high school science teachers. Following his retirement from Marist College in 2000, Andrew was appointed
Professor Emeritus and Heritage Professor. Andrew was devoted to the people and the institution of Marist
College. As a Marist Brother, he participated in the construction of several campus buildings including the
Chapel, the former gymnasium-auditorium, and Donnelly Hall. In 1985, after returning to teaching, he
renovated the chemistry laboratories during his summer break. He remained an active member of the
Greater Marist Community and cherished the many friendships he made throughout his life.
Andrew was also a member of the American Chemical Society, Sigma XI, the NY Academy of Science, the
Hudson River Environmental Society, and served on the Board of the Spaceship Discovery Science and
Technology Center in Hyde Park, NY. He was a communicant of St. Sylvia's parish, Tivoli, NY. He was born
March 19, 1930 in Manhattan as Arthur Joseph Miller Ackermann, son of Edythe Strygner, who
predeceased him in 2004 and Sydney Joseph Ackermann, who predeceased him in 1940. He was the
adopted son of Francis Molloy, who predeceased him in 1985. On November 19, 1966 in Hartford, Conn.,
he married Rosemary L. Boccalatte. Mrs. Molloy survives at home. In addition to his wife, he is survived
by sons, Andrew and his wife, Debra Douthit of Syracuse, NY; Richard and his wife, Amy, and their
children, Rachel, John, and Benjamin, of Queensbury, NY; Stephen and his wife, Alex, and their children,
Ian and Ava, of Carlsbad, CA; and Joseph and his daughter, Molly Jo, of Austin, TX. He is also survived by
his brother, William Molloy of Elmwood Park, NJ, and numerous nephews, nieces, and cousins. Calling
hours will be from 4 to 8 pm, Tuesday, August 22nd at the Chapel at Marist College, Rte. 9, Poughkeepsie.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be concelebrated by Fr. Richard LaMorte and Fr. Gode Iwele, OMI at 12
Noon, Wednesday, August 23rd at the Marist College Chapel. Burial will follow in St. Sylvia's Cemetery,






Rte. 9G, Tivoli, NY. Donations may be made in his memory to The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate
(memo: Lamala Center), and mailed to Father Gode Iwele, OMI c/o Fr. Joseph Hitpas, Provincial Treasurer,
391 Michigan Ave. NE, Washington, DC, 20017. Arrangements are under the direction of Sweet's Funeral
Home, Hyde Park. To send a condolence or for directions, please visit
www.sweetsfuneralhome.com
.
MEMORANDUM TO THE MARIST COLLEGE COMMUNITY
It is with the deepest regret that I inform you of the death of Dr. Andrew Molloy, one of the
true giants in the history of Marist College. Andrew was a son of Marist who both literally and
figuratively played a major role in the building of our College. Andrew passed away Saturday, August
19, following a lengthy heart ailment. His affiliation with Marist spanned half a century as a
student, professor, academic administrator, and mentor to many.
He joined the Marist Brothers in
1946, and was awarded a B.A. from the College in 1951. He taught at schools in Lawrence,
Massachusetts and New York City before going on to earn a Ph.D. in chemistry from Catholic
University in 1961.
Andrew returned to Marist in 1960 as an assistant professor of chemistry and department chair
.
In 1966, he accepted a position upstate at Elmira College, where he also served as interim academic
dean and dean of graduate and adult education. Andrew returned to his alma mater in 1980 to serve as
academic vice president. During his five-year tenure in that position, he played a critical role in
advancing the academic quality of our College and helped to chart a course for Marist that has
resulted in the success we are enjoying today.
He rejoined the faculty in 1985 as professor of chemistry, and later as division chair and
dean of science. Andrew excelled in all the roles he played at Marist, but took particular pride in
being a teacher. In 1998, his colleagues honored him with the Trustees Distinguished Teaching
Award, which is the highest honor that can be given to a professor at the College
.
The Marist Brothers' motto "orare et laborare," means to pray and to work, and Andrew wasn't
afraid to do both
.
As a Marist Brother, Andrew participated in the construction of several campus
buildings including the Chapel, the former gymnasium and auditorium that is now Marian Hall, and
Donnelly Hall. In 1985, after returning to teaching, he personally renovated the chemistry labs
during his summer break.
Andrew's leadership in teaching at the high school and college levels played a major role in
his successful application for a grant of nearly $2 million from the National Science Foundation for
our landmark program "Science on the Move." Thanks to Andrew, science teachers and students
throughout the Hudson River Valley received valuable support in the teaching and learning of science
using the latest technology then available.
Andrew was a member of the American Chemical Society, Sigma Xi, the New York Academy of
Science, the Hudson River Environmental Society, and served on the board of the Spaceship Discovery
Science and Technology Center in Hyde Park.
As devoted as Andrew was to Marist College, his first priority and the love of his life was
his family. He married Rosemary, also a Marist graduate, in 1966, and they had four boys, Andrew,
Richard, Stephen, and Joseph. The Molloys are blessed by several grandchildren, and Andrew is also
survived by numerous nieces, nephews, and cousins. Andrew was known as a warm, kind, and gentle man.
He had a great Irish wit, and every now and then when telling a story, he would interject a phrase
with an Irish brogue. He will be remembered fondly by all who knew him, and his greatest gift to
future Marist faculty and administrators will be the example of his life.
Calling hours for Andrew are from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, August 22, in the Marist
Chapel. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated in the Chapel at noon on Wednesday, August
23, followed by burial in Saint Sylvia's Cemetery in Tivoli.
Messages of condolence may be sent to Rosemary at her home address:
1262 Turkey Hill Road Milan, NY 12571





Dennis J. Murray
President, Marist College
Eulogy
for Andrew A. Molloy August 23, 2006 By J. Richard La Pietra
Andrew Molloy left this earth from the mid-Hudson Valley where he spent so many years of his life. In
the course of that life he had three families. He was born into the first, to Edythe and Sydney Ackermann,
followed by his younger brother, Bill, who had scarcely arrived when the boys lost their father in death.
Edythe's courageous struggle in dark economic and emotional times cannot even be imagined, but life took
a better turn when she married Frank Molloy, who adopted the two boys. In his early teens Andy acquired a
very large family of brothers when he joined the Marists. In that family he received the major portion of his
post-elementary education and found his calling to be a teacher and mentor of the young. After more than
two decades of service to his Brothers and his many students, he felt the call to found his own family and
with a perfect helpmate, his beloved Rosemary, raised four sons to sterling manhood. Andrew's professional
life has been as fully integrated as his personal life. His single profession has been in the field of education
in three separate venues: secondary school teaching as a Marist Brother, and college teaching and
administration at Marist and Elmira Colleges.
Andrew simply loved teaching. In the classroom he was dynamic and absolutely uninhibited. In the
days before whiz-bang technology (those were the days when the spirit duplicator was reverenced) his
classroom was whiz-bang. There was no way you would fall asleep. He made chemistry come alive, even to
the nursing students at Mount Saint Mary College. At the same time he was a caring mentor spending
countless hours working with students solving chemistry problems and problems of other sorts as well. He
was also a "roll-up-your-sleeves-and-pitch-in" kind of a guy and generous almost to a fault. Early on he was
assigned to teach Cale I. A few days before classes were to begin one of the older Brothers asked him to
switch assignments and take his Cale III instead. For a chemist teaching Cale I would have been challenge
enough, but taking on Cale III was like climbing a vertical wall. His kindly acquiescence cost him many,
many hours of midnight oil!
Neither was Andy a stranger to hard physical work. I can picture him even now: a young, wiry, strong
frame, a sweat-stained, grease-smudged T-shirt stuck to his back, lugging around a bag of tools or a load of
lumber. He was a talented carpenter and jack-of-all-trades, as adept at sweating a pipe joint as pouring
concrete forms. He worked to build this very chapel, as well as Donnelly Hall, and what is now Marian Hall.
To describe Andy's smile is to describe the man. It was not a bright, plastic grin, not effervescent and
bubbly. It was more of a boyish smile with the slightest touch of shyness, not the shyness of withdrawal, but
the kind of shyness that backs off just a little to make some space for you to come in, an inviting, warm,
friendly smile. And it was genuine. He was no respecter of persons; by that I mean that whatever your
station in life, Andy treated you with the same respect, courtesy, and invitation to engage. And he loved
simple joys. So many times he would tell me how much he enjoyed a knock on the door and friends
dropping in, making a pot of coffee and sitting around the kitchen table schmoozing. Simple joys like
standing around a piano at a party singing. His strong deep voice could fire your adrenaline as he belted out
"Stout Hearted Men" or his sweet tenor voice melt Irish hearts in a rendition of Danny Boy. He was equally
at home in concert chorus, church choir, or playing the role of the Rabbi in "Fiddler on the Roof."
Andrew Molloy was a romantic, an idealist. Who but a romantic would stage his engagement at the
von Trappe lodge in the Vermont hills. Can't you hear the sound of music as Andy slid the ring on
Rosemary's finger. So many times I heard him speak of building a log cabin in the woods, an ideal that was,
perhaps, conceived as a child raised in the Adirondacks. And build a log home in the woods he did. At a time
when many are winding down, he was ramping up. I would sometimes imagine him, Don Quixote mounted
on a fiery steed off to tilt at yet another windmill. How else conceive of a man certainly past his physical
prime taking on the renovation of thousands of square feet of laboratory space in a single summer with only
a student helper. How else conceive of a man undertaking the enormous Science on the Move project when
so-called wiser heads counseled otherwise. At the time the application was in the final pre-approval stages
the Molloys, Nolans, Sullivans, and we were celebrating anniversaries on a cruise. Andy was dragging along
his lap-top, plugging in at every port of call to deal with NSF's latest quibble.
I have omitted more than I have said in attempting to express our appreciation, yours and mine, of
Andrew's exemplary life. Representatives of all three of his families are here: his brother Bill, the central
figure of his birth family, and Bill's family; his Marist brothers, and the family he founded with Rosemary and
her family. Added to these are a host of friends and colleagues. Though you all come from different walks of
his life perhaps you would agree with my conclusions. Andrew's life mirrored Marcellin Champagnat's advice


to do good quietly. He was a man of deep religious conviction whose faith and hope in God was the
foundation of his life. He loved his heavenly Father, and with St. Francis, he sought rather to love than to be
loved. His love for Rosemary was exquisite. He loved his sons with the pride of a father and rejoiced in their
families. His love extended to his brother, Bill, to his and Rosemary's families, and to all of us.
I can think of no better way to capture his spirit: Andrew Molloy was a great man who never aspired
to greatness.