Benedictine College honors Alex Lynch’s life during graduation weekend
Yellow ribbons, a framed diploma and a campus prayer vigil turned Benedictine’s graduation weekend into a tribute to Alex Lynch, who died after a battle with cancer.
Alex Lynch’s death a week before graduation turned Benedictine College’s commencement weekend into a campuswide act of mourning, with yellow ribbons on robes, prayers at St. Benedict’s Church and a framed diploma handed to his parents in front of the Class of 2026.
On May 7, about 30 students traveled to Indianola, Iowa, to be with Lynch and his family. During finals week, 215 students gathered for a Saturday Mass to pray for his soul. When word of his death spread across campus, an off-campus party stopped, students prayed a decade of the Rosary and many went to adoration, a response that showed how quickly grief moved through Benedictine’s tightly knit residential community.
At the May 15 Baccalaureate Mass, Archbishop Emeritus Joseph Naumann served as principal celebrant and homilist and said Lynch had changed campus culture through his selflessness, joy and interest in others. The next day, Saturday, May 16, 472 seniors received diplomas at Benedictine’s 54th annual commencement exercises in Atchison, and many graduates wore yellow ribbons in Lynch’s memory. Peter Cancro, founder and chairman of Jersey Mike’s, delivered the undergraduate commencement keynote.
College leaders Stephen D. Minnis and Mike King presented Lynch’s framed diploma to his parents during commencement weekend, giving the ceremony a second center of gravity beyond the usual march across the stage. Benedictine said Lynch died in his farm home in Indianola less than a day after receiving his degree in a special ceremony, a detail that deepened the sense that the class had lost one of its own just as it was being celebrated.
Lynch, a finance major from Indianola and a graduate of Indianola High School, also was an Eagle Scout who loved running, playing soccer and singing. Benedictine, founded in 1858 and perched on the Missouri River bluffs in Atchison, says more than 75% of its students live on campus, which helps explain why his death reverberated so widely. For a college that measures success in both diplomas and formation, the weekend became a reminder that one student’s character can shape a campus long after he is gone.
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