Photo: Dan Vaillancourt
CamPUS NewS
the Very rev. richard lamoureux, a.a. ’64
Donald D’amour ’64 and Michele D’amour
Francis r. carroll
93rd Commencement Honors Assumptionists, D’Amours, and Carroll In commemoration of the bicentennial of the birth of Rev. Emmanuel d’Alzon, founder of the Augustinians of the Assumption (Assumptionists), The Very Rev. Richard Lamoureux, A.A. ’64, superior general of the Assumptionists, will travel from Rome to address Assumption College graduates on May 15 at the College’s 93rd Commencement. Fr. Lamoureux also will accept the Assumption College President’s Medal on behalf of the Assumptionists in recognition of the religious order’s efforts to support the educational vision of their founder, Rev. Emmanuel d’Alzon, at the College, that the Assumptionists established in 1904. A Worcester native, Fr. Lamoureux attended the former Assumption Preparatory School and Assumption College. He entered the Assumptionist novitiate in New York and was ordained in 1971. Fr. Lamoureux earned a master’s degree in divinity from the Weston School of Theology, a master’s degree in art history from Boston University, and a doctorate in art history from New York University. He joined the Assumption art faculty in 1976. After leaving the College to lead the Assumptionists’ North American Province during the 1980s, he returned as provost in 1990. In 1999, he was appointed to his first six-year term as Superior General of the Assumptionists, only the second American to hold that position. Fr. Lamoureux is fluent in four languages and conversant in several others. Honorary degree recipients include Francis R. Carroll, chairman and chief executive officer of the Small Business Service Bureau, which he founded in 1968. Carroll brings a strong voice and an informed perspective on important small business issues, particularly health coverage, to the attention of elected officials. The Small Business Service Bureau, an affiliate of Carroll Enterprises, Inc., has grown from a private small business association to include more than 50,000 members. Carroll has been recognized many times for his charitable and volunteer work on behalf of local organizations within greater Worcester. The area adjacent to the Hanover Theatre for the Performing
Arts was designated as Francis R. Carroll Plaza in recognition of the office space he donated when the theater’s renovation was under development. Carroll was the recipient of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette’s 2004 Isaiah Thomas Award, which recognizes individuals who dedicate themselves to public service. More recently, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Business Empowerment Center in Worcester established the Francis R. Carroll Guiding Light Award to honor his enduring efforts on behalf of small business and the community. Donald D’Amour ’64 and Michele D’Amour also will receive honorary degrees. Don, chairman and CEO of Big Y Foods, Inc., leads one of the largest independent supermarket chains in New England. Big Y Foods, headquartered in Springfield (MA), operates 55 stores throughout Connecticut and Massachusetts and employs more than 9,000 people. Each year Big Y awards more than 300 academic scholarships, totaling more than $250,000. Don graduated from Assumption Prep and Assumption College, where he served as a trustee (1991–99). He holds a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Notre Dame. Michele D’Amour is Big Y’s educational partnership administrator. She oversees a variety of initiatives in support of students, schools and learning. Big Y’s Education Express program has awarded more than $11 million worth of needed equipment to schools in its market area since 1993. Big Y’s Homework Helpline assists more than 10,000 children each year. She graduated from Westfield State College and earned a master’s degree in education at American International College. In 2007, the D’Amours gave an extraordinary gift of $4.2 million to Assumption. That gift has established the Donald and Michele D’Amour Chair in the Catholic Intellectual Tradition; endowed an annual lecture in the Catholic Intellectual Life; increased the endowment they had established for the Fortin and Gonthier Foundations of Western Civilization Program and created a new faculty development grant fund.
Assumption College Magazine • Spring 2010
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