Portman Reflects on USD's Beginning

Inside USD--

As a young priest in San Diego, Msgr. John R. Portman recalls seeing the two original buildings at the University of San Diego. Founders and Camino halls were beautiful, but were surrounded by barren ground. A call soon went out from the San Diego diocese for each parish to donate ice plants to help landscape the campus.

While that is fact, Portman — who spoke Tuesday at a USD Faculty and Staff prayer breakfast — also had a fantasy. He imagined USD’s co-founder, Bishop Charles Francis Buddy, in full pontifical garb, surveying the young plants and shouting “Grow, damn you, grow,” said Portman with a chuckle, “he would have done that if he’d thought of it.”

As USD nears the culmination of its 60th anniversary year, the 77-year-old Portman recalled the vision, boldness and determination of Bishop Buddy and USD co-founder, Mother Rosalie Clifton Hill, superior vicar of the Society of the Sacred Heart.  “She and Bishop Buddy were, indeed, what we used to call the ‘dynamic duo.’”

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