Arthur Aloysius O'Leary SJ (September 27, 1887 – February 8, 1962) was an American Catholic priest and Jesuit, who served as president of Georgetown University in from 1935 to 1942.

However, the faculty and alumni of Georgetown petitioned the Jesuit Superior General in Rome to allow Nevils to remain for an additional year in order to prepare a suitable successor.

With the general's approval of the petition, in October 1935, when Nevils was sent to Japan for three months to represent the American Red Cross at an international conference, he appointed O'Leary as acting president in his stead.

[9] In July of that year, O'Leary was officially appointed president of the university,[4] becoming the first native of Washington, D.C. to hold the office.

This goal did not immediately materialize, and in 1937,[11] Edmund A. Walsh, the founder of the School of Foreign Service,[12] urged O'Leary to revitalize the alumni association.

The following year, The Hoya, Georgetown's student newspaper, echoed this sentiment, reporting on the growth of the Communist Party in the United States and the prevalence of communism among faculty across the country.

[14] In light of protests at college campuses around the country against involvement in World War II, such as the presence of the Reserve Officers' Training Corps on campuses, and increasing political tension, O'Leary requested that the Jesuit provincial superior appoint a censor in 1937 to review any public speeches that would be given by Jesuits, so as to remove any political overtones.

[15] Due to the national mobilization during the War, Georgetown's campus became a testing ground for the Army Specialized Training Center.

[8] With his illness progressing, in December 1942, the Jesuit authorities took the unusual step of replacing the president of the university during wartime, naming Lawrence C. Gorman as his successor.

[21] Obtaining permission from the Metropolitan Police Department, he began the practice of students at the Holy Trinity School using N Street as their playground for recess.