St. Thomas Aquinas College, Sparkill, New York, held an inaugural ceremony on Oct. 21 to officially welcome its new president, whose own academic life centered on two schools in the Diocese of Brooklyn.

President Kenneth D. Daly holds a bachelor’s degree in English from St. Francis College, Brooklyn Heights, and an MBA from St. John’s University, Jamaica. As a member of the board of trustees at St. Francis between 2011 and 2020, his work on the development committee raised millions of dollars, according to an announcement by the school he now leads.

He has held the president’s post at St. Thomas Aquinas since July 1, 2020, but the inauguration was postponed because of the pandemic. The event convened the school’s trustees as well as the founders, the Dominican Sisters of Sparkill, along with many special guests and other members of the college community, in the campus’s Sacred Heart Chapel.

President Daly and his wife Laurie, who have four children, announced a $100,000 founding gift to launch a scholarship-funding challenge to increase student access to affordable education.

Daly, who was described as a “passionate educator,” holds other academic credentials from New York University and Harvard University.