Prior to
World War II,
Boston College's Department of Education within the
College of Arts and Sciences was organized to prepare teachers, however student interest dropped after the war. Department chairman Charles F. Donovan, S.J., a 1933 graduate who received his Ph.D. from
Yale, rearranged the curriculum and established a major in education. But changes in the field of education, including increased certification requirements for public school teachers in Massachusetts, made the need for a school of education apparent. When it opened on September 22, 1952, the School of Education was Boston College's first coeducational school on the Chestnut Hill campus. Donovan as dean was assisted by Marie M. Gearan, who served as dean of women. In 1954, Campion Hall was designed by the Boston firm of Maginnis and Walsh, the primary architect for the university's campus.
Archbishop Richard Cushing presided over a dedication ceremony on September 22, 1955. Charles Frank Smith Jr., Boston College’s first tenured black professor, taught at the Lynch School from 1968 to 1996. At one time beginning in 1973, an undergraduate final teaching practicum sent students during a semester to gain experience outside of Massachusetts, including
Indian reservations, and to foreign countries. In 1999, philanthropists Carolyn and
Peter Lynch, an alumnus and financial investor, donated more than $10 million to Boston College, then the largest individual gift ever made to the University. In honor of the gift, the School of Education was renamed in their honor. ==Programs of study==