Meet Our President

 

Father Walter E. Jenkins, C.S.C., Ed.D., is a priest of the Congregation of Holy Cross, the founding Religious order of the University of Notre Dame.  Born in Binghamton, New York, the third of three children, Father Jenkins comes from a family where faith and education we unshakable core values.  His then Methodist Father insisted that he and his brother and sister attend Catholic schools so that they might have a knowledge and understanding of their faith.  Mr. Jenkins worked a second job as a Catholic school janitor so that his three children could attend Catholic schools.  Mrs. Jenkins worked for nearly thirty years in the Catholic high school cafeteria in Binghamton where her children attended.

After graduating from Seton Catholic Central High School with a New York State Regents diploma, Father Jenkins attended King’s College in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania to study Biology in the hopes of pursuing a career in medicine.  The religious formation of his Catholic school days naturally lead to his involvement in Campus Ministry at King’s, where he grew to know the Holy Cross priests and brothers who taught and lead the college.  Impressed by their sense of service, their common life and mission, Father entered the postulancy program of the Congregation of Holy Cross at the University of Notre Dame after completing his undergraduate degree at King’s in 1988.  Father completed formation for the Congregation of Holy Cross and the Catholic priesthood and was ordained a priest at Saint Nicholas Church in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania in 2004.

In his nearly thirty-six-year years as a member of the Congregation of Holy Cross, Father Jenkins has held positions in primary, secondary and higher education as a teacher, priest-chaplain, administrator, and Head of School.   As well, Father Jenkins has served as the Religious Superior of the Congregation of Holy Cross at King’s College and as an elected member of province leadership within his Religious community.  While Religious Superior at King’s, Father Jenkins concurrently served as Pastor of Holy Family Parish in Luzerne, Pennsylvania.

Within Catholic primary and secondary education, Father Jenkins has ministered as Director of Campus Minister at Saint Jospeh’s High School in South Bend, Indiana; Principal of Saint Patrick’s Academy, Binghamton, New York; Principal of Bishop Hoban High School in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania; President of Holy Cross High School, Flushing, New York; and President of Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, California before being appointed the second President of the Catholic Academy of Sussex County in July of 2022.

Father Jenkins holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Government from King’s College, a Master of Divinity from the University of Notre Dame and a Doctorate in Educational Administration from the University of San Francisco.  Father is a member of several professional associations, is a frequent speaker and presenter at professional gatherings and religious retreats and has been a Visiting Scholar at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.  Among his commitments to charitable, Catholic and educational works is his more than ten-year membership on the Board of the historic Saint Joseph’s School for the Deaf in New York City.

Father Jenkins is rarely seen without his Golden Retriever, Wren Shiley (named for Sir Christopher Wren, the great British architect, and Donald Shiley, the inventor of the first artificial heart valve whose widow, Darlene Marcos Shiley, gifted Wren to Father Jenkins).