University urged to revoke degree earned by notorious priest
April 26, 2024
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CWN Editor's Note: A chemistry professor in California has urged the University of Washington to revoke a Ph.D. degree earned in 1978 by Patrick O’Donnell, a onetime Spokane priest (now laicized) who has been accused of abusing over 65 boys.
The chemistry professor, Dan O’Leary, said he almost became one of O’Donnell’s victims as an altar boy and that O’Donnell’s dissertation, “Evoking Trustworthy Behavior of Children and Adults in A Prisoner’s Dilemma Game,” might have involved “sexually abusive behavior under the pretext of conducting doctoral research.”
The University of Washington said that O’Donnell’s actions were “heinous and reprehensible,” but that the university was “unable to obtain evidence that in the course of his graduate work, Mr. O’Donnell met the standard for degree revocation.”
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