Matthew Thomas McKenna Honors Fund

If you ask me, our high school years are the most significant ones in our lives. Those are the years we lay the foundation for the person we’ll become ever after. That was certainly the case for my son, Matthew, who received his education at Loyola Blakefield, a college preparatory school in Towson, Maryland. Matthew walked into the halls of Loyola Blakefield as a young boy, and emerged as a Loyola Don – a “Man for Others” as the Jesuits like to say. Matthew graduated from Loyola Blakefield in 2006.

Hi, my name is Gerry McKenna and as I mentioned above Matthew was my son. I say “was” since Matthew’s no longer with us. He passed away in 2022, on Valentine’s Day as fate would have it. He was just 33 years old. You can read more about Matthew’s story here. Matthew accomplished a lot in his 33 years, but more important than any of his accomplishments were the lives of the people he touched. We’d like to believe that Matthew’s not done making a difference in people’s lives, which is why we worked with the folks at Loyola Blakefield to establish a scholarship fund in Matthew’s memory to help educate other young men in the Jesuit tradition. The fund gives partial scholarships to select students within Loyola’s STEM honors program. If you’d like to contribute to the fund yourself, there’s a link at the top that explains how.

Did Loyola really make that big an impression on Matt? Over a decade after he graduated I got my answer. In 2018 during the rehearsal dinner before our youngest daughter’s wedding Matt stood up to make a few remarks. In closing he proposed a toast. And what words of wisdom did he offer the new couple? The prayer of St Ignatius. Should I have been surprised? I suppose that’s when I realized he really was a Loyola Don.