St Francis College - Motus Yearbook (Biddeford, ME)

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18 9 Presentation of the College Charter, 1953. left to right: Mr. Harold D. Carroll iApostolic Syndich Reverend Norman Thibodeau tHigh School Principal,,- Reverend Frederic Belanger v'fxrst CoHege Presidentl; Governor Cross; Mr. Napoleon Nadeau xBiddetord representative in the Maine Legislature1. Foundation at the new building, circa 1949. From a humble missionary settlement, estab- lished in 1933 on the banks of Saco Bay, Saint Francis, by 1943, had grown a iunior col. lege. Further development was inevitable and the year 1953 witnessed the granting of a Senior College Charter. It is for these reasons that we the graduates of 1963, feel it neces. sary to include this section in MOTUS 1963: to celebrate this triple anniversary of Saint Francis College. World War 11 ha1ted plans for the erection of new living quarters and a gym. Only through a community etctort, in the Iiterai sense of the term, was Saint Francis able to overcome the dimcultiest Neighboring houses were obtained and converted to serve academic purposes. During these same trying years the Fathers, Brothers and students channeled their physical energies to the leveling and landscaping of the athletic Field and the campus. Construction of Saint Francis Hall began in 1948 and was completed in 1950. This new hall served many purposes. 1t provided housing for 200 students, served as a dining room, included twelve classrooms and a gym- nasium. With these added facilities, Saint Francis College was empowered by the state legislature to grant the degrees of Bacheior of Arts and Bachelor of Science. In the sixth month of 1954 Saint Francis First awarded diplomas to its graduates. Because of the rising cost of maintaining both College and High School and because of the urgent need fOr higher Catholic education, the Franciscan Fathers decided to devote all of their resources to expand the College and de cided to eliminate the High School. Saint Francis College High School had its last grade uation in 1960. The new development program which was drawn up in 1961, under the guidance of educational consultants, underlined the urgent need for more land in order to assure ade- quate expansion. The College acquired the adjoining Stella Maris property and adjacent parcels of land thus extending the campus to 130 acres along the Saco River. After underv going considerable remodeling this summer, Stella Maris Hall now houses the Friary, the Library and the Administration. The necessity for this expansion is witnessed by a Rockefeller Foundation report on educa- tion which states in part: Education and col- lege administrators are greatly concerned with what they describe as, 'the coming tidal wave of studentsf This it is estimated will, within a decade or 50, deposit six million students on the doorsteps of the Nationis institutions of higher learning. There are some three million

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First high school graduates, circa 1943. Saint Francis High School, I940. The majority of human institutions have had very humble beginnings. They are products of their age, formed to meet certain needs. 80, too, our College, now in its tenth year is of similar origin and was founded to meet a certain need, the higher education of the youth of today. Invited to Biddeford by Fathers Zenon and Deccry, who were then serving Saint An- dre's Parish, two Franciscan priests and a Franciscan brother began their opostolate in Biddeford, Maine on November 30, 1933. In finding a new settlement in Biddeford, these men were following in the apostolic tradition of their Order founded by Saint Francis of Assisi in the thirteenth century. The conquer- ing spirit of Saint Francis, common to his sons, brought to our continent its first missionaries with Columbus. The names of Le Caron, Hennepin, Juan Perez and Junipero Serra hove immortalized the missionary labors of countless Franciscan pioneers. Until 1937 the Franciscan priests served as chaplains of local convents, assisted the parish priests in their pastoral work and preached retreats in the area. They founded Saint Francis High School in an endeavor to meet the needs of the Catholic youth of the area. The High School enjoyed a rapid growth and was soon considered to be of high caliber. The First graduation was in 1943, at which time the administration judged it expedient to extend the educational program to include the First two years of college. 17

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college students today, and most institutions are at a peak enrollment. The report con- tinues, America's well being and security directly depends upon our capacity to culti- vatetexcellence in our educational institutions. Based upon the Findings of an exhaustive study by the Education Researches Services, Inc., the Franciscan Fathers administering the policies of Saint Francis desire to improve the amount and quality of all facilities in order eventually to accommodate the number of students t800l which will permit development of a sound, fully accredited liberal arts under- graduate curriculum. They desire to do this and yet remain small enough to retain the friendliness, intimacy, and devotion to purpose of a small college. In order to attain these goals, from the standpoint of added physical facilities, a ten year program has been drawn up during which time the following new buildings must be con- structed: nine residence halls, a library, class- room buildings, on arts center and auditorium, a monastery and chapel, and a gymnasium and field house. We the members of the class of 1963 have much to hope for in the future of our school. We shall never forget our soiourn at Saint Francis during which time we took on new physical, moral, social, intellectual and spirit- ual dimensions. We are proud to belong to the history of Saint Francis College. We shall be forever thankful to the Franciscans who have dedicated their lives to make such an institu- tion of higher Catholic learning accessible to us. We are grateful also to the other faculty members who gave of themselves in an eftort to transmit to us the richness of the cultural and social tradition into which we were born. We thank all of our teachers for giving to us the independence, as it is spoken of by Aristotle, which is granted to men by intelli- gence and wisdom as the perfection of a human being. The class of 1963 hopes that in the near future the day will come when Saint Francis College will have taken its place among the foremost institutions of higher learning, wherein, to quote John Henry Cardinal New- man, All branches of knowledge are, at least implicitly, the subiect matter of its teaching; that these branches are not isolated and in- dependent one of another, but form together a whole or system; that they run into each other, and complete each other, and that, in proportion to our view of them as a whole, is the exactness and trustworthiness of the knowl- edge which they separately convey. -FRANCIS P. LEBEAU Current plan for Future development, June 1962. Construction of the new building tSaint Francis Ham in 1949. 19