Theodore Hesburgh, who died on 25 February, is credited with transforming higher education in the United States. Thomas Kruczek, who studied at the University of Notre Dame during Hesburgh’s long presidency, pays tribute to his singular attainments When the US Vice President Joe Biden told Fr Thomas Hesburgh at a Capitol Hill party celebrating his ninety-sixth birthday that Hesburgh was “one of the most powerful unelected officials this nation has ever seen”, he was not exaggerating. No one has had a more profound influence on both higher education and civil rights. Everything Fr Hesburgh did was done with an unparalleled sense of righteousness. In all he did, he served God. He was a brilliant strategic thinker with a rarely seen ability to mediate among disparate parti