Father Schell joined the JCU faculty in 1947 as an instructor in the Department of Philosophy. He would serve as moderator of Sodality, a student organization emphasizing charity and spirituality, and of Alpha Sigma Nu, the Jesuit honor society; headmaster of the residence halls from 1959-64; Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences in 1964; and President from 1967-70, during which time the university became coeducational. In ever increasing numbers, the young women would find the priest with the twinkle in his eye as welcoming to them as he was to the men.
His warm sense of humor continually revealed itself: Telling students about "my cool dude hat" ... Noting that traditionally the wise men of the Church sat down to give their homilies but that he was sitting "because I'm old" ... Telling the sacristan laying out vestments to "make me beautiful" and to hold up cue cards during Mass because the faithful weren't laughing when he thought they should ...Telling a student who told him he'd attended another Mass, "That wasn't a valid Mass -- only I say a valid Mass" ... Daily "threatening" to block students from graduating unless they went on retreat, returned a book, attended his Mass or agreed to myriad other requests ... Replying to someone at Mass who said they couldn't hear the prayer he was mumbling: "I wasn't talking to you."
Father Schell could even find humor in discussing one of the most tense periods in his presidency and in the university's history. In the days immediately following the fatal shooting of four students at Kent State 34 years ago this month, rumors swirled around Carroll and other campuses that activists were en route to foment more confrontations. "I arrived in my office one morning to find a note," recalled Father Schell in remarks to the graduates of '69 at their 30th reunion. "It read, 'You want us to take care of those guys, Father? Just give the word!' It was signed, 'The Rugby Club!'"
In 1991, celebrating his 60th anniversary in the Society of Jesus, he said, "Whatever else I did I made two positively brilliant choices: One was my parents and the other one was to respond to the totally unexpected call to Christ."
On the same occasion, the late Henry Birkenhauer SJ remembered the classmate on the softball field at West Baden College in Indiana who "led the hitters with a smooth golf swing, knee-high above the ground." But most of all he spoke of Schell's "sense of fairness ... learned in the Spiritual Exercises ... which has distinguished him as man, as teacher, leader, Jesuit."
"He found fairness in the Jesuit life and lived it. He found fairness at John Carroll and promoted it. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but you and I, his family and friends, will never forget what he did here," Father Birkenhauer concluded. "The best gift we can offer Father Joe ... is to say to him, 'I am a better person, Joe, for having known you' -- as indeed we are."
Besides the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius, Joe Schell would probably credit his own "better person" to his love for philosophy. "A knowledge of philosophy is more important today than ever," he said in 1965, "because philosophy studies man as a human being and concerns itself with the purpose and value of human life. It helps us make sound judgments about life. A familiarity with philosophy will make a good scientist or a business administrator a better human being. The study of philosophy is of value no matter what a person's life activity may be."
One of the many people who have borne out Father Schell's conviction is Don Shula '51, the most successful coach in NFL history and one of the most respected individuals in all of sports. In stressing the value of the Jesuit education he received at John Carroll, Shula has often extolled the course in logic he had with Father Schell. "It really taught you a lot about the thought process," he told one reporter. "Thinking. Evaluating. Putting things in order logically. It was just a fascinating class. You couldn't wait to get there."