Marquette University Philosophy Department

In April 2000, The Northwestern Mutual Foundation of Milwaukee donated funding to Marquette University to establish the Donald J. Schuenke Chair in Philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences. The naming is in recognition for the generous career of service by the former chairman of Northwestern Mutual, who is also a Marquette trustee and alumnus.

Mr. Schuenke earned a bachelor's degree from Marquette in what was then called the College of Liberal Arts in 1950, and his law degree from the Law School in 1958. In 1983, he became a member of Marquette's Board of Trustees and served as chairman from 1989 to 1993.

In accepting the gift, the Rev. Robert A. Wild, S.J., president of Marquette University, said, "As a student, alumnus, and trustee, Don Schuenke has demonstrated a strong commitment to the mission and values of Marquette University. Don has repeatedly underscored the importance of the liberal arts in his own educational formation, and the Schuenke; Chair will certainly help to strengthen further Marquette's commitment to such an educational formation. In making such a gift, Northwestern Mutual has chosen a wonderful way to honor a man who has done so much for this university and for our Milwaukee community."

On March 8, 2002 The Rev. Roland J. Teske, S.J. was appointed as the inaugural holder of the Chair. Father Roland Teske, S.J. is a native of Milwaukee. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1952. After initial studies at St. Louis University in classics, philosophy and theology, he was ordained a priest in 1965 at Gesu Church in Milwaukee. He later attended the University of Toronto where he received his Ph.D. in 1973. He joined the Marquette University faculty in 1970, becoming a full professor of philosophy in 1990.

Fr. Teske is an internationally distinguished scholar in the work of St. Augustine. He has also done research on William of Auvergne and Henry of Ghent. His career has been devoted to preserving, transmitting and interpreting the work of major figures in the history of medieval philosophy and theology. He has authored or edited more than fifteen books, including many translations, with introductions and notes, of the work of St. Augustine. He gave the St. Augustine Lecture at Villanova University in 1992 and the Marquette Aquinas Lecture in 1996. He has also written more than fifty scholarly articles.

His work on Augustine has been supported by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Augustinian Heritage Foundation. He has also undertaken major editorial responsibilities throughout his career including Theology Digest, The Modern Schoolman, the Marquette University Aquinas Lecture series, and the Marquette University Press series Medieval Philosophical Texts in Translation.

Prior to his appointment to the Donald J. Schuenke Chair in Philosophy, he held the Augustinian Endowed Chair in the Thought of St. Augustine at Villanova University for Fall 2001, the Bannan Chair as visiting professor at the University of Santa Clara, in Santa Clara, California (spring 1990) and the Edward Miller Chair as visiting professor of classics at John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio (1993-94).

For further information about Fr. Teske's career and his publications, please see his Curriculum Vitae here.