New Exhibit Honors the Unsung Heroes of Assumption’s History
To celebrate Assumption’s 122nd birthday on October 1, Professors John Bell and Rachel Coleman honored the voices that have shaped the University at the opening of a new exhibit called Living the Mission: Honoring the Overlooked, Inspiring the Future.
“Assumption has grown and changed in many ways since 1904, but our mission has always been to provide a Catholic liberal education to those who seek it,” Bell said. “What we have sometimes lacked, however, is a usable past, an understanding of our historical identity that can guide our institutional present and future.”
To help create this usable past, in the spring of 2024, Bell and Coleman applied for a Reframing the Institutional Saga grant from the Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education (NetVUE).
“To figure out how Assumption came to be the special place that it is, Rachel’s and my hypothesis was simple: the character of this institution has been shaped by the character of its faculty, staff, and students,” Bell said. “So, we proposed a multilingual campus exhibit analyzing our history through profiles of the diverse array of people who have embodied our mission.”
In the exhibit, Bell and Coleman focused on highlighting members of the Assumption community who had gone unnoticed in the years since its founding, including religious brothers and sisters, lay staff and administrators, and female faculty, alongside alumni, presidents, professors, and provosts.
After compiling 250 names through extensive searching in Assumption’s archives, Bell, Coleman, and a team of student researchers narrowed the project to 24 individuals who made an impact on the University.
The culmination of their two years of research is an exhibit in Hagan Campus Center featuring 11 people who have shaped and lived Assumption’s mission over the last 122 years. They include Br. Armand Goffart; Fr. Marie-Louis Deydier, A.A.; J. Oscar Rocheleau ’28; Fr. Wilfrid Dufault, A.A. ’29; Srs. Marie St. Jean de Dieu Martel, S.A.M., and Marie Ste. Hélène Simard, S.A.M.; Cleo Grady; Sumner Cotzin; Claire Quintal; Michael O’Shea ’59; and Terrance Miller ’03.
Additionally, Bell, Coleman, and their team created a website and catalog, translated into both Spanish and French, featuring all 24 people and how they lived the mission.
“When Professor Bell and I started to talk about the project, we knew that we wanted as much of Assumption’s community involved as possible—that’s our superpower here,” Coleman said. “We’ve measured our success not just in the end product, but by how many have been involved and inspired.”
That list of involved and inspired participants includes 19 student authors, six student translators, three graphic designers, four student videographers, 17 faculty members, and countless departments and offices across campus.
“The exhibit incarnates the mission of Assumption in multiple ways,” Coleman said. “Not only do we highlight particular individuals who have animated the school in meaningful ways over its history, but the more who have taken part in bringing the exhibit to life, the more it has become representative of the spirit of our campus and our collective vocation of Catholic liberal education.”
President Greg Weiner then spoke of the obligations that come with being part of a community—specifically, one with a mission as strong as Assumption’s.
“We often talk about rights and privileges, but not so much about obligations,” he said. “That mission of Catholic liberal education, inspired by the charism of the Assumptionists, is a gift to us. It is something we hold in trust. I think it is also something that imposes obligations on us.
“This exhibit invites us to think about our obligations, our debt, our trust to those who have come before us, to one another in the moment, but also to what we together can make possible for the future. This exhibit is equally about our past and our future. It’s equally about the debt we owe those who came before us as it is about how we repay that debt, which is by continuing to hold the mission in trust,” he continued.
Weiner then welcomed six members of the Assumption community from across various disciplines and generations to officially open the doors to the exhibit.
These community members included Allen Bruehl, the founder and former director of the Academic Support Center; Maurice “Moe” Boisvert ’66, who devoted his life to serving at-risk youth in Massachusetts; Sr. Nuala Cotter, R.A., treasurer for the U.S. Province of the Religious of the Assumption, trustee of the University, and former professor of English; Julie O’Shea, who spent more than 40 years as serials librarian; Kaitlin Bevins ’09, who used to lead student activities and now serves as dean of students at Western New England University; and Fr. Chi Ai Nguyen, vice chair of Assumption’s Board of Trustees and provincial for the North American Province of the Augustinians of the Assumption.
“With a final, but enduring, inadequate, overwhelming thank you to everyone who made this possible, and especially to our two fearless leaders, it is my honor to invite those guests to officially open the doors to our exhibit,” Weiner said to conclude the event.
To read about all 24 honorees in English, French, and Spanish, please visit the Living the Mission website. The exhibit is located on the second floor of Hagan Campus Center and is open to the public during Hagan’s regular hours.