Welcome approach of ‘Father Pat’ resonates with UB students, employees for 35 years

When the Rev. Msgr. J. Patrick Keleher enters Lebro’s restaurant near the North Campus for lunch on a recent Friday, he doesn’t get far before the greetings start.

“Father Pat!” says one woman with a huge smile. “Is that you?”

“It’s so good to see you,” says another, squeezing his arm. “I heard you were retiring.”

Keleher, or Father Pat, as he’s affectionately known, retired from the Newman Center, UB’s Catholic ministry, in July after 35 years. But he remains a larger-than-life presence on campus and in the community.

The 6-foot-1 priest with the slicked-back gray hair and sparkling blue eyes doesn’t miss much. He sees the brokenness in the world and the pain and loneliness that afflict so many. But he also sees the joy and the hope woven throughout UB.

“UB is a wonderful community. There is so much to love — the library, the athletic facilities, the engineers, the athletes, the poets,” Keleher says. “To me, universities are places to serve. And in campus ministry, we are meant to provide hope.”

Many who know the 80-year-old Keleher refer to him as an intellectual with a childlike curiosity and wonder. His down-to-earth friendliness and sincere interest in people make him a beloved figure.

Phyllis Floro, director of UB’s Office of Student Engagement, who has known Keleher for 24 years, recalls when she was managing the Student Union years ago, Keleher insisted on celebrating Ash Wednesday Mass in the middle of the union.

“I warned him that it was loud, but he said he wanted the service to be open to everyone,” Floro says. “That practice continued for years, and he always got a great crowd of students and staff who gathered to begin the Lenten season.” 

Keleher’s welcoming and outgoing attitude inspired parishioners — including many current and former students and UB employees — to pour into the chapel in the Newman Center, located on the edge of North Campus. It encouraged as many as 200 students of all denominations to regularly attend Wednesday night dinners during the academic year, where volunteers serve free, hot meals. It led many students and UB professionals to seek his guidance on spiritual issues and personal plights.

Stephen Recktenwald, a 2021 graduate who works for Moog in Cincinnati, found the Newman Center during Welcome Week during his first year. The center was hosting a barbecue, and Recktenwald recalls being so nervous he almost didn’t get out of his car. The decision to enter the center led to lasting friendships, including with Keleher.

“At the weekly dinners, he’d make it to every single table, talking to people he’d never met and ones he’d talked to thousands of times,” Recktenwald says. “If you have a 10-minute conversation with Father Pat, you know he has an interest in knowing more about you — where you’re from, what you’ve done. He makes you feel seen.”

Edna Simon, a May 2023 graduate from the master of public health program who was an intern at the Newman Center for the past two years, says Keleher taught her patience and how to approach and work with others.

“This is important because I want to work with all different types of people in the world,” Simon says. “Father Pat is a very attentive listener. I am always fascinated by how he speaks with the community members and remembers details about their personal life.”

Father Pat is the ultimate people person and as a result, people love him, says the Rev. Jacob (Jack) Ledwon, who served as the pastor of St. Joseph University Parish and has collaborated with Keleher for the past 33 years.

“He doesn’t talk down to people and isn’t intimidated either,” Ledwon says. “He can equally speak with a freshman and a Rhodes scholar.”

Tom Ralabate, professor emeritus of dance and past chair of UB’s Theatre and Dance Department, has listened to many of Keleher’s homilies at St. Joseph’s.

“Many preach, but few inspire. Hearing him, I was moved to think and take action,” Ralabate says. “Father Pat is a Western New York treasure.

To Keleher it’s pretty simple: Welcome everybody. Meet them where they are. Listen.

He points to a maxim his mother instilled in him as a child: “Open mind, open heart, open door.”

“We live in God’s world,” Keleher says matter-of-factly. “Nothing should be a threat.”

Keleher’s retirement closes a long chapter at UB, but it’s only part of his 55 years in the priesthood.

Growing up in Lockport, Keleher knew at an early age he wanted to be a priest. He entered minor seminary at age 13, which he says wasn’t unusual at the time.

He started in parish ministry at age 25 before leading the Newman Center at SUNY Fredonia from 1981 to 1988, which led to the position at UB.

Thirty years ago, Mike Beato, owner of a technology consulting company, was searching for a church home with his wife, Channel 4 anchor Jacquie Walker, and their then young children.

“We couldn’t find the right environment. Then we attended Mass at UB, and I met Father Pat,” Beato says. “I told Jacquie: I think we found the right place. Over the years, Father Pat has become a close friend to me and to my family.”

The parish hosted a party at the Newman Center last November to celebrate Keleher’s 80th birthday.

“I served as emcee and remember saying, Father Pat is like the Jimmy Stewart character in ‘It’s a Wonderful Life,’” Beato says. “He makes people’s lives richer.”

When Charles Anzalone, news content manager in University Communications, remarried last year, Keleher presented a blessing at the ceremony.

“He put everyone at ease because he was happy to be there,” Anzalone says. “He’s different from other priests. Father Pat is an intellectual free spirit and a forgiving confessor.”

When Keleher looks back over his many years at UB, his memories extend beyond the Newman Center, beyond the marriages and funerals he’s officiated, beyond the numerous homilies. They include regular attendance at women’s basketball games, literature lectures and dance performances.

“Father Pat is very committed to students,” Recktenwald says, recalling how the priest would travel with the football team, attend campus events, and give a “blessing of the brain” to students during finals week.

When His Holiness the Dalai Lama came to UB in 2006, Keleher chaired the Interfaith Service. He invited Ralabate, then artistic director of UB’s Zodiaque Dance Company, to collaborate.

“Father Pat allowed our dancers to perform in front of 6,000 people, giving movement to readings and more energy and clarity to the selected interfaith texts,” Ralabate says. “Afterward, His Holiness commented, ‘I have been to Interfaith Services all over the world, but this one was different. It was artistic.’”

After this transformative experience, Ralabate says Keleher became a devoted audience member and donor to the dance company.

Kerry Ring, clinical associate professor of dance and current artistic director of Zodiaque, notes that Keleher has never missed a show. “He’s a joy to have in the audience,” she says, “and a blessing to have on campus.”

When Keleher started at UB, the North Campus’s Newman Center was located in a little chapel off of Audubon Parkway that is owned by the Skinnersville Cemetery Association. Keleher opted to move the center into an 800-square-foot space in the UB Commons in the ‘90s to be closer to the students.

A meditative trip to Letchworth State Park in the early 2000s inspired Keleher to seek the expansive center that now exists on campus. Once UB administrators and the bishop approved the plan, a 15,000-square foot center opened in 2010, which is conducive to workshops, meetings and the popular dinners. It has resulted in more and varied ministry to students.

“When you’re on a college campus, you have to make Masses specific to students,” Floro says. “I think Father Pat has done such as good job of making his homilies modern and accessible to this generation.”

Working on a university campus has also been a perfect fit for Keleher, who is drawn to academic endeavors including literature and poetry, especially Irish works. He became a fan of James Joyce and a financial supporter of UB’s extensive collection of materials by and related to the Irish writer.

Although he plans to relax in retirement and travel to his favorite city, Paris, as well as visit friends in Hawaii, Keleher expects to continue to visit campus.

“I plan to attend games and recitals and study in the library with the students,” he says. “It will be easier now that I’m not working.”

He also is helping his successor, Paul Seil, the chaplain of the Buffalo Fire Department, acclimate to his new role. Keleher says he has confidence in Seil’s ability to lead the Newman Center going forward and maintain an open approach to students.

“You have to be open; that’s always the first priority,” Keleher says. “At a Catholic college, there’s a chaplain on campus and a crucifix in every room. At UB, we just have us. Students have to find God in the classroom, in the lab, in the locker room. We want to encourage them to see the blessings that surround them at UB.”