Episode 480: Tribute to Alice von Hildebrand - A Womans Woman

Alice Marie von Hildebrand, GCSG (née Jourdain; 11 March 1923 – 14 January 2022) was a Belgian-born American Catholic philosopher, theologian, author, and professor. She taught philosophy at Hunter College for 37 years. She was the second wife of Dietrich von Hildebrand.

Von Hildebrand was born Alice Marie Jourdain in Brussels, Belgium, on 11 March 1923. Her first language was French. She left her home country in 1940, shortly after it was invaded by Germany, and relocated to the United States as a refugee. She initially attended Manhattanville College, before studying philosophy at Fordham University, where she obtained a doctorate in 1949.

Von Hildebrand struggled to find employment in academia. She eventually started teaching at Hunter College – a constituent college of the City University of New York – in 1947. She utilized her maiden name due to the hostility endured by her husband. She only received academic tenure after 14 years of teaching. Despite being advised by the college president (and fellow Catholic) George N. Shuster that she would be more content teaching at a Catholic institution, she was of the opinion that it was essential for a Catholic to be present at a secular educational institution. She ultimately remained at Hunter College for 37 years. She attributed the conversion of many of her students to Catholicism with her teaching of objective truth.

Von Hildebrand retired early in 1984 having grown weary of being issued a teaching schedule that concluded at 10 pm. She was subsequently conferred the Presidential Award for excellence in teaching by the college. Von Hildebrand made more than 80 appearances on EWTN television programming. She launched the Dietrich von Hildebrand Legacy Project in 2004 with some of her husband's former students. Her works include The Soul of a Lion: The Life of Dietrich von Hildebrand (2000), a biography of her husband, and her autobiography, Memoirs of a Happy Failure (2014), which recounts her escape from Nazi Europe and her teaching career at Hunter College.

Von Hildebrand criticized what she considered to be the advance of relativism and modernism in the Catholic Church, particularly within its institutions of Catholic higher education and its Catholic schools. She was also an outspoken critic of feminism.

Von Hildebrand married philosopher and theologian Dietrich von Hildebrand in 1959, two years after his first wife died. They first met at Fordham University, where she was a student and he was a professor. She later worked as his secretary and collaborated with him on authoring books, such as The Art of Living. They did not have children together, and remained married until his death in 1977.

Von Hildebrand was created a Dame of Grand Cross of the Order of Saint Gregory the Great, a papal order of knighthood, in October 2013.She died on 14 January 2022 at her home in New Rochelle, New York. She was 98, and suffered a brief illness prior to her death.