Frances “Frannie” Maguire, a wife, mother, grandmother, artist and philanthropist, died Feb. 12 at the age of 84. She will be most remembered for her caring, generous heart and love for everyone around her.
“She always made everyone feel like you were her best friend,” Margaret Hondros, a friend of Frannie, said. “She just had such a gift of being kind and warm and welcoming and loving.”
Frannie and her husband James Maguire ’58 are best known for their philanthropic support of education in Philadelphia, particularly at James Maguire’s alma mater, St. Joe’s.
In 2005, James and Frannie Maguire gave St. Joe’s a $15 million gift that led to the purchase of the former Episcopal Academy property in Lower Merion, now the James J. Maguire ’58 Campus. In 2017, they donated $50 million, the largest gift in university history. The money helped raise the university’s endowment and has aided in scholarships and programs for students.
Hondros, whose husband, Paul Hondros ’70 was the chair of St. Joe’s Board of Trustees in 2009 said she became friends with Frannie through university functions.
“Both our husbands had such a love and support of the university that we were always together with them,” Margaret Hondros said. “We really became [friends] on several fronts: our love of Saint Joseph’s University as well as a common love of art.”
Hondros said Frannie was a caring mother and grandmother and was always supportive of James’ work.
“It wasn’t just the things that Jim was passionate about and wanted to give to and support—it was Frannie and Jim together,” Hondros said.
Frannie studied painting and sculpture at the Cheltenham Center for the Arts, the Vermont Studio Center and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA). In the Chapel of St. Joseph a bust of Michael Smith, S.J., sculpted by Frannie sits next to the baptismal font.
University President Mark C. Reed, Ed.D., recalls meeting Frannie for the first time, shortly after becoming president of the university.
“We were seated next to each other at dinner and had a wonderful conversation about our backgrounds and interests” Reed wrote in an email to The Hawk. “Near the end, she told me she was going to sculpt my bust. No one had ever said anything like that to me before!”
Frannie also leaves her legacy of art at The Barnes Arboretum at St. Joe’s. In 2018, the university signed a long term lease with the Barnes Foundation to add the arboretum property in Lower Merion to St. Joe’s campus. At the ceremony, Reed announced the naming of the gallery building: The Frances M. Maguire Art Museum.
The surprise brought Frannie to tears as she sat in the crowd surrounded by her family. After the ceremony, Megan Maguire Nicoletti, daughter of Frannie and James Maguire and president and CEO of the Maguire Foundation, expressed how much the surprise meant to her mother.
“St. Joe’s is like another child; that’s her 10th child,” Nicoletti said as Frannie nodded in agreement.
Hondros remembers the moment vividly as she sat behind the Maguire family during the ceremony.
“I remember seeing her face and she was just so joyful and just so touched by that moment,” Hondros said. “That was a really special time when I saw her looking like that. It was a tribute to her and just so fitting, right? Because that was her joy and passion: art.”
Hondros, who founded the Kinney Center with her husband, also recalled how Frannie expressed interest in getting students at the Kinney Center involved in art.
“We never really got it to happen,” Hondros said. “She started to face some illness, challenges and we couldn’t quite make it happen, but I think about that all the time. She always wanted to come down and support the work that we were doing there and do it in the way that she best knew, which was through her art work.”
Frannie is survived by her husband, eight children, 24 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Her daughter, Megan, expressed her mother’s love of family and art at the arboretum ceremony in 2018:
“Well you know I’ll tell you this: the greatest thing about my mom as an artist, I could go on about my mom as a mom, but my mom as an artist, she sees the beauty in all art. No matter how accomplished you are as an artist she thinks your work is amazing.”
Gabriella Bamford ’22 and Luke Malanga ’20 contributed to this story.