Edmund Joyce, 87; Priest Was No. 2 Man at Notre Dame

Father Edmund P. Joyce, who served 35 years as executive vice president of the University of Notre Dame, has died. He was 87.

Joyce, who suffered a stroke in 2002 and never fully recovered, died Sunday at Holy Cross House on the campus in Indiana.

Until his retirement in 1987, Joyce served as the No. 2 man at Notre Dame to Father Theodore M. Hesburgh, the university’s president from 1952 to 1987.

Joyce oversaw the school’s finances and building programs. During his tenure, the operating budget grew from $9 million to $400 million, and more than 40 buildings were constructed on campus. The student body grew from 5,000 to 9,000 during that time.

Joyce also headed the university’s board in charge of athletics. During his tenure, the Fighting Irish won national football championships in 1966, 1973 and 1977, and they won another the year after he retired. The basketball team went to the NCAA tournament 21 times, advancing to the Final Four in 1978.

Joyce was born in what was then British Honduras and is now Belize. He graduated from high school in Spartanburg, S.C., and went to Notre Dame. He earned his bachelor’s degree in accounting in 1937 and returned to Spartanburg, where he became a certified public accountant in 1939.

In 1945, he entered Holy Cross College in Washington, D.C., then the theological house of studies of the Congregation of Holy Cross. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1949 at Sacred Heart Church on the Notre Dame campus.

After ordination, he was named assistant vice president for business affairs at the university. He became acting vice president in the fall of 1949. His tenure in that office was interrupted by a year of study at Oxford University in England. He returned to Notre Dame in 1951 as vice president for business affairs. A year later, he was elevated to the post of executive vice president of the university.

After their retirements in 1987, Joyce and Hesburgh took a long vacation, and Hesburgh wrote about the adventure and their friendship in his 1992 book, “Travels With Ted & Ned.”

Joyce is survived by a brother, Lyle.

Those wishing to make contributions in his name may do so to Father Edmund P. Joyce, CSC Fund for Notre Dame, 1100 Grace Hall, Notre Dame, IN 46556.