Assumption Preparatory School - Memini Yearbook (Worcester, MA)

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The last decades of the 20th century in which you are destined to live will be decisive and challenging years. The astonishing achievements in the fields of science, transportation and communica¬ tions which have featured the decade of the 1950s will undoubtedly be surpassed in the years ahead. These achievements in themselves are neither good nor bad. The use that men will make of them is the decisive factor. They can be instruments of man ' s pro¬ gress and temporal well being or weapons of his destruction. It all de¬ pends on the men who will control and use them. How important it is then that these be men of integrity and high principle! Indeed, how urgent it is that they be men whose standards and ideals are fixed on the sound basis of religious truth and moral law! It has been the constant aim of your teachers, as it is of every Catholic school faculty, to equip you with a code of ideals and principles based on these truths and on this divinely-decreed law. They are your safe guide-posts to hap¬ piness and to responsible, wise leader¬ ship. It is our hope that many of you will bring your talents and zeal into the fields of science and communications, of politics and education. These are the areas which will most need the influence of the kind of moral leadership which you have been prepared to give. But whatever you do or wherever you go, be convinced that you have something that our communities and our world very much need in your heritage of a faith and a moral code which are of God. Above all, we pray that you will always have the courage to hold fast to this heritage and bring its blessed influence to bear in some small part of the world in which you will live. Devotedly yours in Christ, ' fjL Bishop of Worcester

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We then turned our attention to our alumni, those hardy perennials who often answer the call. From these responses we reprint in part what most succinctly answers what we had requested of our writers: what can we do to prepare our¬ selves for a career in leadership and service in the years ahead, and what has Assumption Prep already given us which can help in that preparation. Dr. Gerald Brault ( ' 46) replied as follows: I would say that there are three things for which I shall always be indebted to Assumption. My four years there (1) pro¬ foundly influenced my attitude toward studies, (2) oriented me toward ... a career, and (3) taught me the importance of Catholic ethics in everyday life. . . . I feel that my attitude toward studies was instilled during my freshman and sophomore years at Assumption. It was during those two years . . . that I learned to study. Latin, which I dreaded, provided the first serious academic chal¬ lenge in my life. Once beyond the ele¬ mentary level, I did learn to love Latin, and in history and English I found the subjects which decided me to choose teaching in the humanities as a career. Mr. Lacroix, Mr. Loubert and Father Louis- Robert, notably helped encourage my en¬ thusiasms for their respective subjects. But it was Father Marius ' stern intellectual whip which had the most enduring and beneficial influence upon me. One cannot have gone to Assumption, finally, without having been permanently oriented to approach everything in life from an ethical point of view. It would be vain, indeed untrue, for anyone to claim that knowledge invariably results in conduct. Yet at important moments in my life, it has been most valuable to know unerringly what path was the proper one for me to follow. I need hardly belabor the importance of this in anyone ' s life. This, then, above all else, is the most im¬ portant thing Assumption did for me. Little more need be added. Scan the pages ahead. See the men who have no doubt (though we are not in as good a position as Dr. Brault to realize it) influ¬ enced and moulded us. See the seniors of 1960 and their various successors, leaders in the classroom and out, in activities, athletic or non-athletic, social or cultural. Notice the scope and the number and the moral tone of these activities. Then reflect on why men like Dr. Brault can write as he does. Perhaps even agree with us that the elements of true leader¬ ship now and for the future are to be found here at Assumption.

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Headmaster’s M essage Dear Graduates of 1960: At long last the hour for Catholic leadership in the United States has struck. Statistics, moreover, indicate that a high proportion of our American lead¬ ers come from preparatory schools. You may draw your own conclusions as to the contribution Assumption Preparatory School should make to the burgeoning Catholic role in American leadership. This does not mean that I would ex¬ hort all boys to become leaders. This could be confusing and possibly dis¬ couraging. I do not, however, hesitate to invite them all, you too therefore, to serve. I hope that all Assumption Preparatory graduates and those of the class of 1960 in particular, will serve their families, their country and the world-community as well as their Church and their God! But enlightened service does not blossom haphazardly; it must be culti¬ vated, assidously, methodically. It is made up of many precious ingredients, ingredients which we hope your school has helped you to prepare and to blend properly. First there is the indispensable knowledge of the past, for a man not rooted in rich and firm tradition is like a falling leaf at the mercy of every breeze. Then to this wisdom of the ages must be joined the proper ac¬ quaintance with the modern world, in both its strengths and its weaknesses. As personal experience is blended with such book-learning, there should then be born reflection, tor non- assimi¬ lated, superficial knowledge will be of little avail. When and where reflection meets prayer and love, then and there convictions generally come to life. From deep convictions to action, service an- leadership is but a step. Please retain these lessons learned, at times so painstakingly, on the benches, the stage or the playing field, in the science laboratory, the library, or in the halls and rooms as well as in the chapel of Assumption. Yes, indeed, retain them and continue to apply them, to amplify their significance that you may be equal to the tasks of the challenging space-age. Let your voices be heard, not as blustering and vain cries from leaders of darkness, but as the humble yet clear, loving yet convinced, accents of men who remember that they owe it to all they held dear in the Springtime of their youth to serve Christ and their fellow- men in Him in the Summer of their full maturity!