By Marc Tumeinski, Ph.D.
Bishop John Wright remains one of the key figures from the early years of Anna Maria College, in light of his deep commitment to the Sisters of St. Anne and to the College from 1951 until his death on August 10, 1979. As the first Bishop of the new diocese of Worcester, Bishop Wright welcomed the Sisters to start the first Catholic college for women in the diocese. This bold move marked the next stage of a fruitful collaboration between the Sisters and the Catholic Church in Massachusetts. The Sisters of Saint Anne were already present in Massachusetts by 1881, and by 1888 had opened St. Ann’s Academy in Marlborough, the first of many SSA schools in the Commonwealth. Anna Maria College itself was founded over 78 years ago, initially in Marlborough, a part of the Boston Archdiocese.
When Bishop Wright learned of the availability of a 293-acre estate in Paxton, a horse breeding farm known as Mooracres, he suggested it as a suitable site for the growing College. The College was moved to Paxton in 1951, a little more than a year after the creation of the new Diocese. We should be grateful for the Sisters’ courage and vision in taking this step of relocating to Paxton, into a new diocese. We have the Sisters and the Bishop to thank for the lovely campus that surround us today.
We can imagine how different the campus looked in those early years, and then watch it grow in our minds’ eyes, as it was transformed from a farm to an expanding college. At the invitation of the Sisters, Bishop Wright was present at so many “firsts” on campus. In 1951, the Bishop blessed the first chapel on campus, located in what later became Socquet House. He blessed Trinity and St. Joseph Halls in 1953, Miriam Hall in 1954, and the Marian grotto near the current football field in 1956. He was present when ground was broken for the building of Foundress Hall and in 1957 blessed the completed building.
The Bishop was not just supportive of the growing physical infrastructure of the campus. He also contributed to its intellectual infrastructure. Our library collection includes multiple volumes authored by the Bishop. In 1959, he helped to establish an endowment for lectures at the College, with an initial grant of $10,000 from the Medora A. Feehan Fund–a significant amount in 1959. The first lecture series funded by this program was delivered by Vincent Smith–a professor who taught at St. John’s University, the Catholic University of America, and Notre Dame–on the topic of the role of philosophy in Catholic liberal education. This act exemplifies Bishop Wright’s support of the liberal arts. He was a scholar himself, having completed post-graduate study in Rome. After defending his doctoral dissertation in 1939, he returned to Boston to teach theology, philosophy, and English at St. John’s Seminary from 1939 to 1943. The topics of many of his writings and speeches resonate with the current mission and values of Anna Maria, such as the emphasis placed on building up justice and peace, and assuming personal moral responsibility. One of the focal points of his doctoral dissertation was on the vital role of humanistic education in general, and of Catholic education specifically, in fostering a greater moral order and peace in the world–a pressing concern in the years leading up to the start of the Second World War.
Bishop Wright made substantial financial contributions to the College, arranged for tuition scholarships for multiple students, and donated numerous artworks as well as books. Furthermore, he encouraged multiple individuals and clubs in Worcester to donate to Anna Maria and the work of the Sisters. Just from 1951 to 1955, for instance, he either donated or solicited donations to Anna Maria totaling almost $80,000. Our College archives contain letter after letter from the 1950s through the 1970s, thanking the Bishop for financial gifts to the College, including money designated for building the library. The Bishop presented a marble bust of Joan of Arc to the College in 1954 and a statue of Joan of Arc in 1973. His sister gave an oil painting of the Bishop in 1972. Even after moving first to Pittsburgh and later to Rome, he returned to the campus regularly, as a commencement speaker in 1966, for example, and a conference speaker in 1971.
As we consider how the College has grown and developed since its move to Paxton in 1951, we see in Bishop Wright a champion dedicated to fostering the vision and mission of the Sisters of St. Anne. Today, we can honor that legacy by continuing to live out the Sisters’ charism of education, which is just as important today as ever, if not more so.
