(born 1945), is an American Catholic priest of the Congregation of the Mission who served as the fifteenth President of St. John's University in Queens, New York from 1989 until 2013.
After graduating from Regis High School in Manhattan, he was admitted to the Congregation of the Mission and studied at their junior college seminary in Princeton, New Jersey.
During his tenure at St. John's, he oversaw a transformation of the focus of the school from that of a commuter college, geared to the local Catholic population, to one which draws its student body from across the nation.
[1] In addition to many honorary degrees from universities around the world, Harrington was awarded the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice of by Pope John Paul II in 1989 and was named a Knight of the Holy Sepulchre in 1999.
[3] Harrington's retirement announcement came in the middle of an investigation of corruption,[4] in which he was widely criticized for accepting expensive gifts and trips during his presidency and for failing to supervise a dean of the university who was accused of embezzling a huge sum of money, in a scandal which resulted in that dean's suicide.