Monsignor Alfred F. Horrigan was born in 1914. He is notable for being the founding president of Bellarmine University. Ordained in 1940, he was named a monsignor by Pope Pius XII. Msgr. Horrigan was frequently involved in social justice issues and headed the Louisville, Kentucky Human Relation Commission. He was a friend of Thomas Merton. The preschool at St. James Elementary School is named after him. He also served at St. James Church as a priest. He was the first recipient of Saint Meinrad’s Distinguished Alumnus Award, which was conferred upon him in 1990. He was inducted into the Kentucky Civil Rights Hall of Fame in 2003. He died in August 2005 at the age of ninety.