By Hadley Frey ’26

Father Gregory Boyle will join Mercersburg Academy on Friday, February 14, for the Joseph Hilliard Beauregard ’18 Memorial Generosity of Spirit School Meeting. Boyle is a New York Times bestselling author and founder of Homeboy Industries, the world’s largest gang rehabilitation organization.

Boyle’s story began in Southern California, where he graduated from high school and entered the Jesuits in 1972. He became a priest in 1984. In the 1980s, during the surge of gang-related violence in his town, Boyle was moved to do something about it. He and community members came together to take in these gang members and treat them as their own. In 1988, he founded Homeboy Industries.

Homeboy Industries is a program where former gang members can achieve a better life. The company offers an 18-month program and simple services like tattoo removal and therapy. Homeboy Industries has over 350 trainees and opens its doors to thousands every year. The company has had astonishing results with 21,500 class sessions, 11,840 tattoo removals, and 3,680 therapy sessions. “Homies,” people who have gone through the program, will be joining Boyle for the school meeting to share their stories.

In 2010 Boyle came out with the book, Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion, which quickly became a New York Times bestseller. This book was also utilized as a Mercersburg all-school reading book in 2018, and following its release, Boyle visited Mercersburg for the first time in 2019 to deliver the Schaff Lecture on Ethics and Morals. Following his first book, Boyle published three more, including The Whole Language: The Power of Extravagant Tenderness, which was published in 2021 and was elected as a Mercersburg faculty-sponsored read for the 2024 summer reading challenge.

Along with his debut as a New York Times bestselling author, Boyle was a recipient of the California Peace Prize and was added to the California Hall of Fame. Former President Barack Obama granted him the Champion of Change award in 2014, and Boyle received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2024, the highest honor given to a civilian. 

Rev. Dr. Will Whitmore, the school minister, said, “Father Greg is one of those people who has a deep connection and understanding with what it means to be aware of love, the human condition, and the hope we desire. The Joe B is all about connection and the human spirit; Boyle embodies this.” 

The Joseph Hilliard Beauregard ’18 Memorial Generosity of Spirit School Meeting series honors the memory of Beauregard, who attended Mercersburg for three years and graduated with the Class of 2018. He passed away in October 2018 during his freshman year at Savannah College of Art and Design. The speaker series has been established in his memory to further an ongoing and powerful message of recognition, respect, and caring that was a part of Beauregard’s life.