Doug Hennes, vice president for University and Government Relations, is celebrating the release of his book “That Great Heart,” a biography chronicling the life of the late St. Thomas alumnus and philanthropist I. A. O’Shaughnessy.

Hennes said there was more to O’Shaughnessy than his business career and philanthropy and that these other things drive the book, which was released Nov. 6.

After researching for an article in 2007 commemorating the 100th anniversary of O’Shaughnessy’s graduation from St. Thomas, Hennes got the idea to write the biography.

“In the course of doing the research for that magazine story, I ran across a lot of other really interesting material on him, and I thought to myself, there’s a really good book here,” Hennes said.

In 2010 and 2011, Hennes also researched O’Shaughnessy for a short film and discovered even more information.

“I ran across all kinds of background on O’Shaughnessy that persuaded me that there was definitely a good book in the works. So I went to the O’Shaughnessy Foundation,” he said. “He was on the board at both St. Thomas and Notre Dame for more than 30 years, and he was on a lot of different other boards, chamber boards, hospital boards, because they knew he was a smart man and they trusted his advice.”

Hennes found out that O’Shaughnessy’s oil company sponsored a basketball team that sent several players to the 1936 Olympics.

“They won the gold medal in Berlin, so that made for a fun chapter,” Hennes said.

In February 2012, Hennes presented a proposal to the O’Shaughnessy Foundation and began research for the biography that summer with its support.

Hennes said there was no shortage of material to review. He came across 14 boxes at the Minnesota History Center “jammed full” of pages, mostly in the form of correspondence.

“I read every scrap of paper in those 14 boxes, and I didn’t even use all of it,” Hennes reflected. “I went to the History Center every Saturday and Sunday for months, and I thought, I’m never going to get done researching this thing. But you didn’t want to stop because every time you thought you were ready to stop, you’d find something else that was interesting.”

He also traveled to Kansas and Illinois to search public libraries for writings about O’Shaughnessy’s oil company, which was active and successful in those areas in the 1930s and 1940s.

Hennes gave his completed manuscript to the O’Shaughnessy Foundation for review in the summer of 2013 and then to Beaver’s Pond Press in Edina for publishing. He said he hopes to reach a curious Minnesota audience, noting that, especially in St. Paul, people see the O’Shaughnessy name all over but may not know much about him.

“(I know) just that there are a lot of buildings named after him,” junior Jack Jensen said when asked about O’Shaughnessy.

Sophomore Cari Monroe also said she knew very little about the philanthropist but felt people might be interested in learning more.

“(O’Shaughnessy is) very connected to the school. You could find out a lot about the history,” Monroe said.

Lauren Schaffran can be reached at scha7492@stthomas.edu.