Loyola Academy Names Rev. Greg Ostdiek As New President

WILMETTE, IL — The Loyola Academy board of trustees on Tuesday named one of its members as the next president of the nation's largest Jesuit high school.

The Rev. Greg Ostdiek, an Ohio native and former U.S. Navy officer, will succeed the Rev. Patrick McGrath in July 2022 as McGrath departs to become the next pastor of Old St. Patrick's Church in Chicago, according to a release from school officials.

“I am tremendously excited to join Loyola Academy in its mission of serving Chicagoland and the world,” Ostdiek said in the release. “Loyola is a school with incredible students, a tremendously talented and caring faculty and staff, who show daily their dedication to the school’s mission of forming women and men for others in service to the Church and the world, and an amazing community. I am humbled and honored to be chosen to serve them in turn.”

Ostdiek served in the Navy from 1996 to 2008 on a variety of ships, according to school officials. He was responsible for the training of a 450-person department in the nuclear power plant of the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis, and, as executive officer and navigator of the USS Dextrous, second in command of a Avenger-class mine countermeasures ship with an 80-person crew that was twice deployed to the Persian Gulf.

“Through this experience, he came to learn what makes for effective leadership,” Nancy Paridy, Loyola Academy Board President and Evanston resident, said in the release, “and he sees the keys to Christian leadership as leading from love, getting people on board and having them aligned with a shared mission.”

Since joining the Jesuits in 2008, Ostdiek has taught physics, coached school sports, served in campus ministry and moderated student clubs at several schools, including at Loyola Academy from 2014 to 2016, according to the release.

Ordained in 2019, he has also served as a prison minister and parish priest.

Ostdiek currently serves as an administrator at Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School in Indianapolis and on the board of St. Xavier High School in Cincinnati, as well as Loyola Academy.

“Father Greg has the unique combination of solid leadership with a firm grounding in the Jesuit mission," Paridy added. "He is well-poised to take on this role, and I am very pleased to welcome him to this incredible community.”

School officials praised McGrath, who spent 12 years as president, for his leadership on a $75 million capital campaign that has brought a new aquatic center, piazza and a soon-to-be completed performing arts center.

McGrath announced he was stepping down from the Loyola Academy post in February. He was appointed Old St. Patrick's Church pastor by Cardinal Blase Cupich in June, after the Rev. Thomas Hurley resigned from the role in March.

The Rev. Karl Kiser, the provincial of the Midwest Jesuits, made McGrath available for assignment to be pastor at Old St. Patrick's and made Ostdiek available to spend time at Loyola during the spring semester.

“I am thrilled to mission Father Greg Ostdiek, SJ, as Loyola Academy’s next president,” Kiser said in the release. “Greg brings a passion to share the Good News with young people and will lead Loyola Academy with vision and energy.”