The president of Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, died after falling ill in Italy following a three-year battle with cancer, university leadership announced Sunday.
President Michael Lovell and his wife, Amy, were in Rome with members of the Society of Jesus and the Board of Trustees on a Jesuit formation pilgrimage when he became sick and was hospitalized. Lovell, 57, had battled sarcoma, a rare cancer, for three years.
Before becoming president of Marquette in 2014, Lovell served as chancellor of the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and the dean of its engineering college, WTMJ, the NBC affiliate in Milwaukee, reported.
Lovell pushed Marquette and Milwaukee to ask what could be rather than settling for the status quo, university leadership said in a statement announcing his death.
"Throughout his presidency, he attended hundreds of campus events each year and continued to teach undergraduate students in his product realization class, saying that he gained great energy from his interactions with students, faculty and staff.
As of Sunday, a campus prayer vigil was being planned. Funeral arrangements will be shared once they are available.
Local
Marquette, a private Catholic, Jesuit university, is Wisconsin's largest private university with roughly 11,000 students.
Feeling out of the loop? We'll catch you up on the Chicago news you need to know. Sign up for the weekly Chicago Catch-Up newsletter.
