Alice Laffey, a long-time faculty member at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, died on July 30. She was 78 years old.
A native of Pittsburgh, Dr. Laffey was a graduate of what is now Carlow University. After college she taught religion in the Pittsburgh Diocese for several years before going to Rome to study at the Pontifical Biblical Institute. There she was the first woman to earn a doctoral degree in sacred scripture.
Dr. Laffey then joined the faculty at the College of Holy Cross, where she taught for 35 years. A scholar of the Hebrew Bible and one of the first to bring a feminist theology to Holy Cross. Her academic scholarship reflected not only her areas of expertise but of interest, focusing on the Hebrew bible (the Old Testament), feminist hermeneutics, and ecology and the Bible.
Dr. Laffey was an early advocate for the creation of the Nativity School in Worcester, a Jesuit private middle school that provides an all-scholarship education to underserved boys in the city. She remained a staunch supporter, serving on its board, and looked forward to the creation of a sister school for girls in 2024.