Featured Testimonial About Creighton University
Creighton’s online program offered wonderful flexibility, and I am so grateful for the faculty and administrators who helped me navigate it.
Fifty years after leaving Creighton without finishing his undergraduate degree, Al Lopez returned to campus to walk across the commencement stage and celebrate a full-circle achievement.
Lopez is a Creighton graduate.
It was an unconventional journey to this special moment.
Few people begin their college careers as a pre-med student at Creighton, step away from campus, and spend the next five decades building a remarkable life and career before returning to finish what they started.
Lopez performed on cruise ships, appeared in television soap operas, became a respected hospitality executive, opened more than 40 restaurants and several hotels, and held senior leadership positions with some of the industry's most recognized organizations.
But it was a restaurant opening that brought him back to Omaha three years ago. And it was his daughter’s academic success that inspired him to think differently about his own unfinished degree. Conversations with Creighton friends and administrators soon turned into a renewed opportunity.
“I thought about it and realized it was foolish not to at least consider it, even at my age,” said Lopez, who was 65 when he re-enrolled as a Creighton student in 2024. “Next thing you know, I’m in this amazing online program, back in school at the place where I started.
“It's very joyful. It's very satisfying. And I have many people to thank, including Creighton Deans Anthony Hendrickson and Gayla Stoner, alumnus Rod Jewell, and of course, my wife, Susan, and daughter, Ally.”
Without his newly earned Creighton degree, Lopez believes he likely would not be in the position he holds today.
He recently accepted a Lecturing Instructor position at the Culinary Institute of America, one of the world’s premier culinary institutions. There, he shares more than four decades of hospitality leadership experience with the next generation of industry professionals while teaching inside one of the school’s acclaimed teaching restaurants in Hyde Park, N.Y.
“I tell people, your life can change in a moment,” he said. “What can seem so insignificant — you meet someone, shake a hand, answer the phone. But then you look up a month later, and your life is completely different. That certainly applies to my story at Creighton, for sure.”
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An unexpected Creighton homecoming
When a college friend — Rod Jewell, BA’79 — reached out to Lopez a few years ago about the idea of opening a restaurant in downtown Omaha, he hesitated.
The $6 million plan: Open a deluxe, 370-seat sports bar in seven months.
“That’s pretty unheard of in this business,” Lopez said.
But the more Lopez looked into the concept and the people involved (including former NBA player Mike Miller and then-Creighton assistant coach Ryan Miller), the more he liked it. Lopez soon accepted a position as the managing partner and CEO of Let It Fly Sports Bar. The restaurant opened its flagship location in 2023.
And while leading Let It Fly, Lopez was completing online classes with kids younger than his daughter (there were other non-traditional students, too, including EMTs and nurses).
“Creighton’s online program offered wonderful flexibility, and I am so grateful for the faculty and administrators who helped me navigate it,” Lopez said. “Every class, it was a pretty eclectic and very diverse group, and we had these rich conversations with insight from everyone and their different experiences and perspectives.”
Lopez certainly had plenty to contribute. Just a quick summary of the moments that define his winding and weaving career path:
- Lopez jokes that his pre-med track at Creighton lasted about “two seconds.” He arrived in 1976, moved from the East Coast into the fifth floor of Swanson Hall and immediately had to reassess his goals.
- In the ‘80s, Lopez worked at his dad’s Spanish and Mexican restaurants, doing every job imaginable as he learned invaluable lessons about business strategy and customer relations. He soon moved into the hospitality industry.
- Lopez has opened more than 40 restaurants and three hotels. He’s consulted on projects and held leadership roles. He rose through the corporate ranks for major hospitality brands, such as Alain Ducasse Group, W Hotels, Marriott Hotels, Union Square Hospitality Group, and the LifeWorks Restaurant Group.
- He pivoted to bartending in the ‘90s. And acting. After attending the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, he started booking gigs for commercials and soap operas. Nothing too big, he insists. “I was a working, not-so-working, actor,” he said with a laugh.
- Lopez met his wife, Susan, while rehearsing for a murder-mystery production. They performed on cruise ships. They traveled across the globe but eventually decided on a more stable lifestyle. It wasn’t too long that their daughter, Ally, was born.
“I'm just a very lucky individual that I've been able to hitch my wagon to some world-class brands and hospitality companies,” Lopez said. “But I am also a believer in hard work, that you can create your own good luck by bringing passion and being dedicated to serving others.”
It’s why he’s always been a “Creighton boy” at heart. Even if he didn’t graduate on time.
He completed his pursuit of the leadership degree in 2026. He took part in commencement celebrations in May. A few months prior, he stepped away from Let It Fly and moved back to New York to accept his role at the Culinary Institute of America.
“I have such deep appreciation for Creighton,” Lopez said. “The fact that I was able to go back and finish when I started, it brings me such peace that I was able to do that.”
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