Merrimack College - Merrimackan Yearbook (North Andover, MA)

Page 15 text:

? . 1 Q Q If . 4,6 T' P V, . 7, V D 'I r I i - v ' x f f l'l d G Murray D.D., Rector of St. ,Iohn's Under lowering skies and amid the hum of final prepara- Monsignor ur war . , tions Archbishop Richard 1. Cushing blesses the college Seminary, llrighton, and the Very Reverend William J. before the opening.: of classes in September, 1947. Father Kclcllcr, S,j,, President of Boston College, in uugmlumgc, McQuade is assisting His Excellency with Right Reverend off: The actual work of the classroom gets underway with serious lectures and busy note taking. The first classes held closely to the high level of scholarship Merrimack requires of its students. fs..

Page 14 text:

The temporary faculty house situated across the street from the Classroom Building. Purchased from Mr. John Murphy, this house served for thc original administrative oflices of the. college. At present it is employed as a residence for seven priests of the faculty and provides dining facilities for the other clerical members of the teaching staff. The summer of 19-17 aml the first building of Merrimack College is rising on Peters Street. flnscrtj The completed Classroom Building as it appears today is full of meaning and happy memories particularly for the class of 'Sl who literally grew up with it. Shortly after the close of World War ll, a llavcr- hill labor-management committee resolved to broaden its industrial relations program in order to aid the rehabilitation of returning veterans. One of the most important a.i.....t-is of this program, veterans' educa- tion, was assigned to a special panel: Andrew .l. Germain, Ellery Atwood, ,l. l.eo Cronin, Sidney l.. Culloford, Edwin L. Liedick, Francis X. lVlcNamara, Patrick .l. Murnane, and Richard L. Walsh. This committee foun'd that the educational facilities in the Merrimack Valley were quite inadequate for the large munber of veterans who intended to enter college. Then began a series of conferences and plan- ning sessions which eventually culminated in the establishment of Merrimack College. Mr. Cronin consulted the Right Reverend Jeremiah F. Minihan., secretary to the Archbishop of Boston, concerning the possibilities of establishing a college north of Boston. Early in .lune of 19446 their plans were laid before Archbishop Richard ,l. Cushing, ln 4, ,Try short time, the Archbishop informed the panel that the Order of Saint Augustine had accepted his invita- tion and was already initiating steps towards the foundation of a college in the town of North Andover. The Very Reverend Vincent A. lVlcQuade, 0.S.A., Ph.D., Professor of Sociology and chairman of the Veterans' Bureau at Villanova College was appointed first president of Merrimack College in December, 1946. The newly organized board of trustees chose the present site of the College because of its central location and easy accessibility.

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Located in the towns of Andover and North Andover, just outside the city of Lawrence 011 the Salem turnpike, the College comprises approximately One hundred and fifty acres on a hill overlooking tl - s 16 countryside. With the capable assistance of Augustine X. Dooley, legal counsel of the College , ,,,,,, Merrimack received its charter on April 27, 1947, from the Commonwealth of Massaclmsetts, empower- lng it to confer degrees customarily granted by colleges and universities. September, 1947, was set for the opcninv of tl g, ic College. Meanwhile plans for a classroom building on Peters Street were pushed forward. Situated across the street from the temporary faculty house, the one- story, E-shaped cinderblock structt Ire contained seven classrooms, a library, a chapel, two laboratories, and administrative offices. -an fam The original chapel as it was a - 'ranged in what is now the office of the Dean of the Faculty. Here two students make a visit to the Source of all learning--a practice that has become tr d' ' the st d ' a :tion among u ents of Merrimack. ,Zi