From staff reports

Cheverus High School has hired a former teacher and Boston native to be its 19th president.

The Rev. George E. Collins, the director of campus ministry at Fairfield University in Connecticut, was chosen to lead the Catholic high school in Portland effective July 1.

Collins will replace the Rev. William R. Campbell, who is leaving Cheverus to serve as vice president for mission at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts.

The announcement was made Thursday in a statement released by Richard Peterson, chairman of Cheverus’ board of trustees.

“Father Collins is an inspired choice as our next leader,” Peterson said. “He is no stranger to Cheverus. As a well-respected theology instructor at Cheverus from 2005 to 2007, Father Collins made a deep and lasting impression on his students in guiding them as St. Ignatius Loyola did in ‘finding God in all things.'”

Collins was chosen after a national search, in which the search committee considered lay and Jesuit candidates. Peterson said Collins rose to the top as a leader who embodies the Jesuit values upon which Cheverus was built and has a commitment to a rigorous secondary liberal arts education.

Collins comes from a family of nine children and has a business background. He received a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Boston College before going to work for Boston Edison Co. He retired from Boston Edison in 1998 as a process/planning supervisor and returned to Boston College, where he earned a master’s degree in pastoral ministry in 2000 – the year he entered the Society of Jesus.

Cheverus, founded in 1917, is an independent, co-educational college preparatory school overseen by the Jesuits.