By Voice staff

William Hynes, Ph.D., president emeritus and professor of religious studies at St. Norbert College in Wisconsin, has been named the 17th president of Holy Names University in Oakland. He succeeds Notre Dame Sister Rosemarie Nassif, who is retiring in July.

William Hynes

Hynes comes to Holy Names with a breadth of academic experience that includes faculty and administrative positions. He received his B.A. in Philosophy and English from Conception College, his M.A. in Catholic Theology from Marquette University, his M.A. in the History of Christian Thought and a Ph.D. in the History of American Religious Thought from the University of Chicago.

A year-long NEH Fellowship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill allowed him to work with Charles Long, a pre-eminent scholar of African-American religious history.

He previously served as president of St. Norbert College for eight years and has also been the academic vice president of St. Mary’s College in Moraga and academic dean of the college at Regis University in Denver. He has also taught undergraduates and graduate students for more than 20 years.

The author of three books, he is finishing work on a fourth, “Principles of Entrepreneurship,” based upon interviews with 25 entrepreneurs.

Hynes and his spouse, Margaret Anne Shurgot, are the parents of two sons. While living in the Bay Area from 1990 to 2000, Shurgot held executive fundraising positions with the San Francisco Symphony, the Campaign to Restore the War Memorial Opera House, and California College of the Arts.

Holy Names University was founded in 1868 by the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary on the shores of Oakland’s Lake Merritt as a college for women. It is now a co-educational institution located in the Oakland Hills. It awards bachelor’s and master’s degrees.

Hynes will assume the presidency at HNU on Aug. 1.

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