SNC General Lends Leadership Expertise at Top Military Academy

As a career military man, Brig. Gen. John Hanley ’79 is used to hanging his hat in different locations around the world. Even so, his most recent position, which combined his background in military leadership with the educational focus he is pursuing in retirement, came as somewhat of a surprise to him.

Hanley (pictured) has recently wrapped up a year-and-a-half stint as provost for St. John’s Northwestern Academies in Delafield, Wis. Recruited to the position by St. John’s Northwestern president and longtime acquaintance Maj. Gen. Paul Lima, Hanley was able to remain active in education after previously working as an adjunct instructor at Viterbo University.

“Working at St. John’s Northwestern Academies was a way for me to give back to others using the things I’ve learned – succeeded at and failed at – in teaching leadership,” Hanley explains.

Hanley’s responsibilities at the top boarding school included academics for the high-school and middle-school academies, athletics and Junior ROTC. While the institution operates primarily on a military model along the lines of West Point, only 2 to 3 percent of its students go on to a military career. A section of St. John’s Northwestern Academies students is educated using the prefect system of student government in which select pupils have leadership responsibilities.

In addition to his administrative duties, Hanley taught a dual high-school and college credit Servant Leadership course to St. John’s Northwestern students to help fulfill their annual leadership education requirements. The general earned his doctorate in Leadership for the Advancement of Learning & Service after retiring from the Army.

“My primary responsibilities covered academics,” Hanley notes. “The president handles finance and enrollment, so our skill sets complemented each other.”

“The reason I was at St. John’s Northwestern is because Major General Lima and I are professional and personal colleagues, and my personal allegiance is to him,” Hanley says.

He has also taught ROTC at Georgetown University and George Mason University during his career.

ROTC has played a major role in the Hanley family for generations. Hanley’s wife, the former Faye Schattner ’80) retired from the army as a major, and his father was Col. John Hanley ’42. Now, the Hanleys’ daughter, Army Capt. Kathryn Hanley, continues the family’s service to the Army, and she will deploy for the third time later this year.

Leadership formed at St. Norbert
ROTC furnished some of the longest-lasting friendships Hanley made while at St. Norbert, he says. And the most significant of those turned out to be with Schattner, who would soon become his wife.

“I met the love of my life at St. Norbert,” Hanley says. “She was a big support system during a difficult time following the sudden death of my father, Colonel John Hanley. Things took off from there, and we got married a year later.”

As well as his ROTC involvement, Hanley was a member of the competitive rifle team that SNC fielded at the time. (The college offered the program 1937-42 and 1947-86.) While participation may have been a natural fit for him as a member of the college’s ROTC program, Hanley nevertheless took pride in his membership. He was on the team all four years of his college experience, earning three letters and serving as captain his senior year. (The program’s shooting range was located in the basement of Van Dyke Gymnasium, which is the site of today’s Ray Van Den Heuvel Family Campus Center.)

Hanley is one of some dozen St. Norbert ROTC alumni to achieve the rank of general since the program began in 1937. Today’s Green Knight Company is a member of the Fox Valley Battalion headquartered at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh.

A Norbertine influence
Connections made at St. Norbert College can last a lifetime – although not always without interruption. The friendship between Brig. Gen. John C. Hanley ’79 and the Rev. Mike Weber is a good example.

 Hanley got to know Weber as a young Norbertine who served as Hanley’s undergraduate advisor. The two built a friendship that led to Weber serving as the officiating priest at Hanley’s wedding to Schattner.

 A few years later, Weber contacted the Hanleys while they were deployed with the U.S. Army in Germany to discuss a military career of his own. Weber eventually joined the Air Force, and he and the Hanleys lost touch for several years while they continued their respective military careers.

Fast forward to 2011 and Weber retired as a lieutenant colonel, returning to St. Norbert to teach and serve in campus ministry. Hanley, meanwhile, was looking forward to transitioning his career to one of an educator. He asked his former undergraduate advisor to mentor him during his successful doctoral journey.

 “I learned how to be a caring individual and about servant leadership during my St. Norbert experience,” Hanley explains. “Mike Weber comes to mind when I think of those attributes.”

Aug. 10, 2022