37 Facts About Jim Towey

Harry James Towey II is an American former government official and academic administrator.

Jim Towey was appointed secretary of the Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services by Governor Lawton Chiles in 1993, and ousted by the Florida Senate in 1995.

Jim Towey founded Aging with Dignity, a nonprofit advocacy organization for senior citizens, in 1996 and coauthored the end-of-life planning document Five Wishes.

Jim Towey was Director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives from February 2002 to May 2006.

Jim Towey was President of Saint Vincent College from 2006 to 2010 and President and CEO of Ave Maria University from 2011 to 2019.

Jim Towey was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, and named after his paternal uncle, a Catholic priest.

Jim Towey met his wife, Mary, while volunteering for the Missionaries of Charity; the two married in 1992 and have five children.

Jim Towey worked for Oregon Senator Mark Hatfield as legislative director and legal counsel between 1982 and 1988.

In 1985, while traveling for Hatfield, Jim Towey met Mother Teresa in Calcutta.

Jim Towey arranged immigration matters for the order's nuns and prevented the unauthorized use of Mother Teresa's name and image.

Jim Towey volunteered full-time with the order for a total of nearly two years between 1988 and 1990, in Tijuana, Mexico, and at an AIDS hospice in Washington, DC In 1997, Jim Towey represented Mother Teresa in a dispute with a Tennessee coffee shop that had publicized a coincidental resemblance between her and one of their baked goods and had begun to sell merchandise featuring the bun.

Recently, Jim Towey defended Mother Teresa in an opinion piece in the National Review, Reject the Smears against Mother Teresa.

Jim Towey presented the book to Pope Francis at the Vatican the same week.

Jim Towey reentered the political sphere in 1990 as aide to Lawton Chiles, the newly elected governor of Florida, assisting him as a liaison to religious communities.

Jim Towey was removed from office in 1995 after the Florida State Senate refused to reconfirm his appointment.

In 1996, Jim Towey established the non-profit organization Aging with Dignity.

Jim Towey led Aging with Dignity until 2002, when he was named director of the OFBCI.

Jim Towey rejoined the group's board of directors after he left the White House, and has worked for the group as a paid consultant since 2007, in addition to his duties at Saint Vincent College and Ave Maria University.

Jeb Bush, the president's brother, was a personal friend of Jim Towey and had recommended him for the office.

Jim Towey reported to John Bridgeland, the director of the USA Freedom Corps.

Jim Towey helped implement 'charitable choice' policies opening federal funding for prison counseling, addiction counseling, mentoring, and other programs to small faith-based non-profit organizations.

Jim Towey supported proposed legislation increasing tax incentives for charitable donation and extending the ministerial exemption to faith-based organizations.

Pagans criticised Jim Towey for disregarding charitable efforts by pagans and for portraying them as uncompassionate.

Jim Towey became the sixteenth President of Saint Vincent College, a small Catholic college in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, on July 1,2006.

Jim Towey was a member of the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity, an accreditation advisory body for the Department of Education, between 2007 and 2008.

Jim Towey was one of the initial signatories to the 2009 Manhattan Declaration, a religious-freedom manifesto.

In February 2008, nearly three quarters of the tenured faculty signed a letter of concern to the college's board of directors regarding Jim Towey, stating that he had shown "systematic and pervasive disregard for collegiality and shared governance" and had "brought about an unparalleled crisis".

Jim Towey attributed the dissension to a clash of cultures with a predominantly Benedictine faculty unaccustomed to rapid change, and to the fact that he was "new to academia".

Jim Towey stepped down as president on June 30,2010, one year before his contract ended.

Jim Towey assumed the role of President of Ave Maria University from Nicholas Healy on July 1,2011.

Jim Towey obtained the approval of the Missionaries of Charity through his previous association with their founder.

On October 9,2018, Jim Towey announced that he would step down as President of Ave Maria on June 30,2020.

Jim Towey wrote, "During her lifetime, Mother Teresa strictly prohibited any political use of her name, image or likeness, or any other representations that sought to associate her with any political cause or campaign".

Dietzen's lawyer, Jim Bopp, was planning on complying until he learned that Towey had sent the letter to the press.

Jim Towey asked Towey to provide proof that he represented the Missionaries of Charity, a list of recipients of the letter, and information about whether the Dietzen photo was copyrighted.

Jim Towey said that mentioning Teresa in the Rooney ad was "an error in judgment" which he regretted.

In Oct 2022, the National Review published an article by Jim Towey that highlighted his support for improved end-of-life care and his fervent opposition to the spread of physician-assisted suicide.