Robert E. Laird
Senior Counselor to the President, The Cardinal Newman Society
The Cardinal Newman Society gratefully presents the Saint John Henry Newman Award to Robert Laird, who has served with distinction his Church, his country, and his community. By his selfless service to The Cardinal Newman Society over the last 14 years, serving in several key roles that launched important new programs and supported every function of the organization, Mr. Laird has been instrumental to our mission of promoting and defending faithful Catholic education. On behalf of Catholic families who greatly benefit from Newman Guide Recommended education, we recognize Robert Laird for his transformational impact, and we uphold him as a model of lay Catholic leadership and a witness to the value of faithful Catholic formation.
A graduate from the United States Military Academy, Airborne School, Ranger School, and The Command and General Staff College, Mr. Laird devoted his early years to his country through the Army, first as Assistant Professor of Nuclear Engineering at West Point. He later led a team negotiating agreements between the U.S. and Russia concerning the security and safety of nuclear weapons. He also led a working group to Russia as part of the Nunn-Lugar Act to assist the Russians in the safe and secure disposal of their nuclear weapons. He retired as Colonel after serving in the Army for 22 years.
Mr. Laird then dedicated himself to serving the Church as Assistant Director and later the third Director for Family Life of the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia. He expanded the respect life, marriage preparation, and Natural Family Planning programs; started a young adult program that included the popular “Theology on Tap”; initiated the diocesan Project Rachel program for post-abortion healing; and established the Gabriel Project, a parish-based crisis pregnancy program.
Mr. Laird was appointed Executive Director of Tepeyac Family Center (now Tepeyac OB-GYN), a nonprofit, pro-life obstetrics-gynecology practice in Fairfax, Va., and Executive Director of Divine Mercy Care, a nonprofit medical organization bringing Catholic health care to Northern Virginia. He organized the expansion of Tepeyac from three practicing physicians to six, creating a business model that combines an authentically pro-life practice with excellent medicine while caring for insured, under-insured, and uninsured patients.
Mr. Laird also served 10 years on the board of directors of the Couple to Couple League. He and his wife, Gerri, have taught Natural Family Planning to more than 1,100 couples since 1984.
Not content to rest, Mr. Laird then devoted the last 14 years to The Cardinal Newman Society’s work of promoting and defending faithful Catholic education. In that time, he launched and led the Catholic Education Honor Roll, our first recognition program for elementary and secondary schools that was assumed and adapted from The Acton Institute; he launched and led several working groups of leaders at Newman Guide Recommended institutions; and he launched and continues to lead the Newman Guide Defender program to track legal developments and defend the religious freedom and steadfast fidelity of Newman Guide Recommended education. He has served in multiple positions including Director of Programs, Vice President of Development, and now Senior Counselor to the President.
Mr. Laird is a frequent writer and speaker on religious freedom, Catholic education, pro-life issues, marriage, natural family planning, and family life programs. He has appeared on local and national television, radio, and in print media. He has served on several nonprofit boards and is active in his parish as the chair of the finance council and the religious freedom committee, for which he writes a weekly “Church Persecuted” column in his parish bulletin.
Bob and Gerri are in their 57th year of marriage and have five children and 12 grandchildren.
