Each year the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology presents the Archbishop Joseph Alemany Award to honor men and women who have made outstanding contributions to the Church in the Western Dominican Province. At this year’s Alemany Award Dinner, we will be honoring three Dominican priests who served as educators, chaplains, spiritual directors, and friends to many: Fr. Tommy Hayes, OP, Fr. Vincent Lopez, OP, and Fr. Martin Walsh, OP. For more information about the Alemany Awards Dinner on April 18, contact advancement@dspt.edu.
Rev. Thomas James Hayes, OP (Fr. Tommy)
Fr. Tommy Hayes was born in Seattle, Washington on February 20, 1932. He is the eldest of three boys. During the Great Depression, the family found themselves moving back to Benicia, California, where his father had been raised. While living in Benicia, Fr. Tommy attended Saint Catherine Academy and Saint Vincent’s High School, both of which were run by the Dominican Sisters of San Rafael. He spent his freshman year of college at Saint Martin’s Benedictine Abbey in Washington, but returned to California to complete his undergraduate degree at Saint Mary’s College of Moraga. He completed his studies for ordination and ministry as a Dominican priest at Saint Albert’s College and was ordained to the priesthood on June 12, 1959.
Fr. Tommy’s ministries have included teaching positions at Saint Albert’s College, Saint Mary’s College, and Mount Saint Mary’s College. He also served as chaplain to the students at Saint Mary’s College from 1962 to 1965. He has also carried out pastoral ministries at St. Dominic’s in Benicia, St. Dominic’s in San Francisco, the Shrine of Saint Jude, Holy Family Cathedral in Anchorage, Alaska, and the Dominican Community in Menlo Park. As Fr. Tommy celebrates his 50th anniversary of his ordination, he remains active in promoting the apostolate of the Western Dominican Province.
Fr. Vincent Lopez, OP
Fr. Vincent was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on May 23, 1930, the second of six children. At age six, his family moved to Vallejo, California, where he attended St. Vincent Ferrer grammar and high schools, graduating as class valedictorian in 1948. After two years at Mount Angel College in Oregon, he entered the Dominican novitiate and was ordained in 1956. Earning master’s degrees in History and in School Administration from the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, he taught history and moral theology at St. John Vianney/Daniel Murphy High School in Los Angeles. He was named the Hearst Newspaper Teacher of the Year in 1962. From 1969 until 1975, Fr. Vincent was assigned as principal of the high school.
After serving as Promoter of Studies for the Western Dominican Province, Fr. Vincent was able to continue what was to be a lifelong career as a beloved high school principal, whose skills of leadership and spiritual guidance, organization and efficiency, and the ability to reach young people were all put to use. He served at St. Joseph in Ogden, Utah, St. Michael’s Academy in Austin, Texas, Marist in Eugene, Oregon, Bethlehem in Louisville, Kentucky, and Memorial High School in Fresno, California. By the end of his tenure at each of these schools, Fr. Vincent greatly advanced his priorities of Catholicity, academic excellence, increased enrollment, and increased scholarship opportunities.
Presently, Fr. Vincent is in residence at the Monastery of the Angels in Los Angeles, where he makes himself available to nearby parishes in between his fundraising trips, preaching on behalf of the Dominican Mission Foundation.
Rev. Martin De Porres Walsh, OP
Fr. Martin was born and raised in Vallejo, California. He also attended St. Vincent Ferrer grammar and high schools, graduating in 1956. After earning his Bachelor of Science from the University of San Francisco in 1961, he returned to St. Vincent’s for two years as an English teacher. It was then that he first became involved in ministering to the Third World as one of the founders of Amigos Anonymous, a nationwide program directing college students in social work among rural villagers in Mexico. Joining the Dominicans, he earned a Bachelor of Philosophy and a Master of Divinity from DSPT.
Since his ordination in 1969, Fr. Martin has been assigned primarily to St. Dominic Priory in San Francisco, serving as parochial vicar and eight years as pastor. He also spent eight years at the Dominican Mission in Mexicali and served as the Western Dominican Province’s Novice Master for six years. Over a period of eight years, beginning in 1995, he served as Vocation Director for the Province.
Concurrent with his ministries, Fr. Martin has been a staff member at the Westside Mental Health Center Department of Psychiatry at Mt. Zion Hospital in San Francisco and in St. Albert’s College Program for the Career Development of Clergy. He has served on the Boards of Directors of the San Francisco African American Historical and Cultural Society and the Dominican Biblical School of Jerusalem.
In 2003, Fr. Martin was appointed Director of the Dominican Mission Foundation in San Francisco, which oversees missions in Mexico, Guatemala, Kenya, Lithuania, and the Philippines. Since 2007, in addition to this role, Fr. Martin has served as Director of the Shrine of Saint Jude in San Francisco. He is currently a member of the Board of the Rosary College Foundation in the Philippines and of the Board of Trustees of DSPT.
