By Michael Blanding
As a student in Suffolk’s Master of Public Administration Program, Bill Robinson, MPA ’12, took a leadership survey to determine what industry he’d be best suited for, and the result came up “ministry.”
“I was joking about it with the rest of the class,” he remembers. Soon, however, he began considering the priesthood in earnest. He’d always been devoutly religious, and interested in theology and philosophy as well as public service. “Once the call came, it got clear pretty quickly,” he says.
Now, Father Bill serves as parochial vicar for two parishes in Westwood, south of Boston, running the affairs of the parishes along with a team of two pastors. He conducts day-to-day operations, as well as outreach and running programs for parishioners. Far from giving up on his MPA, however, he finds the degree indispensable.
“Each parish is truly a mini-business, with many financial aspects,” he says. “As priests we have to identify and execute a vision and are also called to be involved in the community, which is literally what an MPA teaches. If I were the pope, I’d require every priest to have an MPA.”
Fr. Bill grew up in Lexington, where he was involved with the local Methodist Church. He always assumed he’d run for political office one day and studied political science at Ithaca College—and also converted to Catholicism, attracted by its long history and the sacraments. After graduation, he worked for the Air Force as a civilian, working as a contract specialist at Hanscom Air Force Base, at the same time enrolling at the Sawyer Business School.
He serves as a chaplain in the Air Force Reserves. In Westwood, he’s been working to rebuild a sense of community after COVID, bringing back coffee and donuts after Mass and creating a Bible study and men’s and women’s discussion groups. He’s taken to heart his lessons from Suffolk about transformational leadership. “It’s about creating a vision together and building a team to make it happen,” he says.
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Photograph by Adam DeTour
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Discovering common ground
