Getting Down to Business

President Charles L. Cotrell doesn’t mince words. “Brother Goelz’s vision helped to establish the foundations of the modern business school at St. Mary’s.”

Rewind 88 years.

Born in 1914 in Illinois, Paul Goelz was one of 13 children and the first-born of twins. And, although a professed Marianist since 1941, Goelz entered the novitiate at the age of 26, having spent time in the banking, shoe, oil equipment and automotive industries.

So, upon arriving at St. Mary’s in 1946 to help Brother George Kohnen, S.M., Ph.D., build a top-notch business school, it was with practical experience. He earned his doctorate in economics in 1954 and, when Kohnen died in 1962, Goelz took over as dean.

During his tenure he initiated Business Week, designed the entrepreneur curriculum and established a free enterprise forum that attracted former U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan to speak, among others.

Goelz also helped secure the gift that built the Albert B. Alkek Business Center.

Director of the Algur H. Meadows Center for Entrepreneurial Studies from 1981 to 2001, Goelz taught for more than 50 years and has been awarded dozens of prestigious honors, including the Ford Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award.

But, it’s his vocation that he finds most satisfying. Goelz says the most important thing he’s learned is the value of the ascetical life. “I’d rather spend two weeks in a Trappist Monastery than take a vacation,” he says.

And, after all of the accolades and praise, his answer to what he is most proud of is simple, “Being a Marianist.”

Brother Paul C. Goelz, S.M., retired since 2001, has been a Marianist for 61 years.