marisfs all
Eulogy for
Brother Pau
l
Ambrose
Received the Breath of Life
28 August 1913
Southbridge, Massachusetts
Called to Accept the Marist Brotherhood
26 July 1930
Was Commended to God
27 December 2003
Miami Florida
Mass of Christian Burial
Our Lady of Wisdom Chapel
Poughkeepsie NY
Interment
Marist Brothers Cemetery
Esopus, New York
Eulogy by Brother Joseph L. R. Belanger, FMS
He's gone
.
No, not Father Champagnat, as some students in awe thought him to be, but Brother Paul
Ambrose
,
founding President of the 4-year Marist College
.
50, 70, 90 years of age or more: we all are
called back to our Maker sooner or later to give an account of our stewardship. "To err is human," yes.
But Bro. Paul's ledger is deeply in the black.
He was librarian at St. Ann's Academy in New York City and had just completed a 2-year course for an
M.A. in English at Catholic University when the Superiors chose him to be Master of Scholastics in 1943.
What? A librarian to be Master of Scholastics? Yes, and the Superiors could not have chosen better. He
knew people, he knew how to form them as persons and as religious. He was Master for 15 years, from
1943 to his appointment as Assistant General at the Chapter in France in Fall 1958. We received
excellent training, not simply a college degree
.
We wrote inspirational leaflets called "Hi There!" We wrote
articles for "Chips." We gave talks at the daily devotions in March to St. Joseph, in May to Our Lady, in
June to the Sacred Heart, in July to the Good St. Ann. We put on plays and skits. We had daily music
training
.
We taught sample classes. We sat in on classes in NYC to learn from professionals. We were
the blood bank for St. Francis Hospital, on call day and night. Some Scholastics even got certificates in
First Aid
.
We hiked to Esopus at the January break. And we did construction labor, plenty of it. Excellent
character development. All these activities were conceived and supervised by the Master and directed by
the superb team of professors he chose around him
.
Bro. Paul wanted his love of Marist to spread
around the world, and he invited Student Brothers from everywhere: Canada, Mexico, Spain, Italy,
Zambia, Malawi, Zimbabwe, the Philippines
.
Later President Murray granted him Presidential
Scholarships and scholars came from Africa, South Korea, Sri Lanka, India. Marist College became as
international as the Institute
.
Bro. Paul was named Master in 1943 at age 29 not only to form persons and religious, but with the
mandate to develop the 2-year Marist Training School, approved by Albany in 1929, into a 4-year Liberal
Arts college. Paper, lots of paper, but he was a born administrator. [Didn't he arrange for his wake
yesterday to be on January 2, birthday of the Marist Brothers?] Bro
.
Paul could dot the i's and cross the
t's
.
He burned midnight oil. He consulted with Albany and Catholic University and fine-tuned an already
solid institution. Our affiliation with Fordham University in 1929 was expanded and we were affiliated with
Catholic University as well in 1944
.
Bro. Paul's efforts were crowned with success on September 20,
1946 when Marist Training School was accredited by Albany as the 4-year Marian College
.
With that







development came a building program, especially this very chapel we worship in. In 1997 billionaire
Michael Bloomberg, speaking at the Marist College Commencement, walked over to Bro. Paul on the
dais, shook his hand vigorously, and said, "You've provided an education for over 18,000 people. Now
that's what I call an achievement!" Things get done when people do them
.
Bro. Paul got things done
.
He
had the right stuff
.
The Brothers voted Paul to the General Chapter in France in Fall 1958, and in November 28-year-old
Bro. Linus Richard Foy replaced him as President. Bro. Paul so makes his mark in the discussions and
decisions of the General Chapter that he is named that year, not Provincial of the new US Province as he
expected, but Assistant General. He is surprised, perhaps even a bit disappointed, but he resolutely puts
his hand to the plow. First of all, he decides to upgrade the working facilities in Rome and equips
headquarters with electronic typewriters, faxes, and other modern equipment. He is appointed to work
with the missions particularly
.
His accomplishments there are legendary. Over the years he collects more
than $1,000,000. A little money goes far in the missions
.
He helps found a medical clinic in Nigeria, dig a
well in India, get a 4-wheel jeep in South Africa. He begs from this foundation and that. He visits all these
places, takes pictures, reports in detail to the foundations before the next request. He travels more than
two dozen times around the globe
.
Where his United States passport may be non grata, he uses his
Vatican passport. The formation center in Sri Lanka is most grateful and names their site The Bro. Paul
Ambrose Center.
Especially, he marks people around the world, indelibly
.
His Scholastics evidently, then people in Italy,
Africa, Lebanon, Hong Kong, Sarawak, Pakistan. Ask Dora and Mimo and Napoleon and George
Michael, ask hundreds of others. Never in their lifetime will they forget what he did for them. I myself am
named to Marist College in 1959 because of him. After his first term as Assistant he is considered for
Superior General, but the Holy Spirit watches over us and he is runner-up to Bro. Basilio Rueda, pre-
eminent pastor and saint. Bro. Paul's skills are primarily political and administrative
.
His 18 years in
Europe completed, he returns to the States for a few years. He fortunately stops the stupid purchase of a
3-storey dilapidated convent for our elderly and finds and purchases a much more suitable retirement
home in Lawrence MA for the elderly Brothers. He serves as Director there for a few years, then is
Bookstore Manager in Marist Chicago for 3 years. This is followed by 3 years of service as Director of a
satellite community in Lawrence again, then this restless, zealous soul ups and goes to Liberia in 1987 at
age 74 to help the Bishop of Monrovia run the diocese.
When Bro
.
Paul contracts malaria in Liberia in 1989
,
President Murray invites him to settle on campus
and take up residence in the Gate House. Voluminous correspondence and dozens of international
visitors keep him busy. He prays faithfully and Security sees him daily walking on campus in the early
hours of the morning saying his Rosary while students sleep. He has his own key to the chapel he built
and adores there quietly. Fittingly Dr. Murray dedicates Fontaine Hall to him in Fall 2000. In his late 80's
Bro. Paul still retains some of his fire
,
and as recently as 1999 he electrifies the elite students at
Baccalaureat Service by his exhortation. In Spring 2000 he begins to lose it. To Bro. Patrick McNamara,
Provincial
,
falls the terrifying duty of telling Bro. Paul he can't drive anymore
.
Obediently Bro
.
Paul hands
over the keys of the college car and moves, not quietly, to retirement in Florida.
I miss our trips home when we would recite the Rosary and sing the Lourdes Gloria Patri et Filio, and
Paul would give 5-minute meditations between the mysteries. I miss our Rosary before Mass. I miss his
preprandials in the Gate House. I miss our weekly dinners. We all miss some things dearly with Bro. Paul.
He has left all of us memories for a lifetime, till we also are called back to our Maker for an account of our
stewardship. May he now rest in peace.
A Tribute by Dennis J. Murray
President of Marist College
In his latter years, Brother Paul often told me his final wish was to be buried from this chapel. He felt this
way because the campus was his home and the Marist Brothers were his extended family. There could
be no more appropriate place to celebrate Brother Paul's life, because he was inextricably linked to this
site overlooking the Hudson.




He received the habit here in 1930, and professed his first
vows in 1931
.
He studied here from 1932-1934.
He worked here, and helped construct many of the buildings
on this campus, including this chapel.
In 1943, Brother Louis Omer, the Provincial of the Order at
the time, asked Brother Paul to become Master of Scholastics
and to transform the Marist Normal Training School into a
four-year college
.
From 1943-1958, he served as Dean of the College and
ultimately became President.
From 1958-1990, he served the Church and her people
around the world, but always kept a tie to his roots in the
Hudson River Valley.
• He received an Honorary Degree from the College in 1972
.
• He returned here in 1990 to assist with numerous projects that benefited the College and the Marist Brothers
.
• And in 2000, the newly constructed Fontaine Hall was named in his honor.
I believe this is the first time someone has been buried from a chapel that
he helped build and which is located at a college that he helped found
.
Brother Paul particularly liked this part of the campus because the Library
served as a symbol of his commitment to education and the Chapel a
symbol of his commitment to his faith. He called the sidewalk that
connects the two buildings "the way to wisdom." He recognized that to
live a meaningful life, you had to nurture both the intellect and the soul.
He took particular pride in the statue of Marcellin Champagnat he had
commissioned, which sits beside this connecting sidewalk.
Although I will always have many fond memories of Brother Paul, there are three that truly stand out.
The first took place at Commencement in 1990. Brother Paul had returned to the campus from Africa to
recuperate from a bout of malaria and the disorientation often associated with this disease. The
Commencement ceremony began on the campus green behind the Lowell Thomas Communications
Center, but Brother Paul was nowhere to be found
.
Partway through the Commencement speaker's
address, the infrequently used back doors of the Lowell Thomas building flung open. There stood Brother
Paul in his majestic white cassock, his gold cross gleaming in the sun, staring at the 8,000 guests. The
ceremony stopped as Brother Paul made his way to the Commencement platform
.
One of the graduates
asked a classmate sitting next to him, "Is that the Pope?" - and he responded, "No, stupid, that's
Marcellin Champagnat
;
he has returned home
.
" Brother Paul was always a mighty presence on this
campus
.
My second remembrance took place in Rome in 1997 while preparing for an international conference on
FDR and the Roman Catholic Church. Our small delegation was invited to join the Holy Father for a
private Mass at 7a.m. in the chapel of the papal apartment. His Holiness asked Brother Paul to proclaim
the First Reading during the liturgy. As I watched Brother Paul standing shoulder to shoulder with Pope
John Paul 11, I could feel the special bond between them - two men who devoted their entire lives to the
service of God, the Church, and the people of the world.
The final recollection I'd like to share about Brother Paul is how college students related to him,
regardless of their nationality, faith, or culture
.
It didn't matter if they were from India, Japan, Africa, China,
or the Bronx - they all knew that Brother Paul had served in their communities and lived his faith. Young
people have an uncanny ability to distinguish between the phony and the genuine, and they knew Brother
Paul was the real thing.
Brother Paul has impacted this campus in many ways. We have adopted his Marist values of commitment
to education, sense of community, and service to others. But like all great teachers, the greatest gift he
gave us was the lesson of his life.



Reflections by Dennis J. Murray,
President of Marist College:
It is with profound sadness that I write to inform you of the
death of President-Emeritus Brother Paul Ambrose
Fontaine, FMS. Brother Paul, the founder of modern-day
Marist College, died in Florida on December 27, 2003 at
the age of 90
.
Brother Paul's life was a testimony to his faith in God and
his dedication to others. He spent more than 75 years of
his life as a Marist Brother, led the College's effort to
receive its charter as a bachelor's degree-granting
institution, made 33 trips around the world on behalf of Marist missions, and served two popes as a
personal emissary to Africa and Asia
.
Born Leonard Edward Fontaine in Southbridge, Massachusetts in 1913, Brother Paul entered the Order's
junior novitiate in Tyngsboro
,
Massachusetts at the age of 13. In 1927, he arrived in Poughkeepsie at the
site of what was then a high school and formation center for future Marist Brothers
.
In 1929, the Marist
Brothers' Normal Training School was only allowed to offer freshman- and sophomore-level college
courses. Following his studies in Poughkeepsie, Brother Paul transferred to Fordham University to
complete his bachelor's degree in education. He also received a bachelor's degree in library science from
Villanova University and a master's degree in English from Catholic University of America in Washington,
D.C.
In 1943 at the age of 29, after teaching in several schools, Brother Paul was called by his provincial to
become the new Master of Scholastics at the Marist Brothers' Normal Training School. Three years later,
he successfully petitioned the New York State Education Department to grant a charter, transforming the
Training School into a four-year institution then called Marian College
.
Brother Paul remained here an
additional 13 years to build the campus, the faculty, and the academic program. In 1960, the charter was
amended to change the name from Marian to Marist College.
Brother Paul left Marian College in 1958 when he was elected Assistant Superior General of the Marist
Brothers worldwide. Working in Rome, his talents as the "master builder" of Marist College were put to
good use as a member of the commission that supervised the major renovation of a facility that became
the new Marist Brothers' General House. He also supervised construction of the English-speaking second
Novitiate in Fribourg, Switzerland, and established Marist schools and expanded apostolates in India,
Japan, Pakistan, Sarawak, and Sri Lanka
.
In 1989 while serving in Liberia, Brother Paul contracted malaria
.
I asked him to return to Marist to
recuperate and make the Kieran Gate House his retirement home. He returned to the College, but he
never retired. He continued to be a strong presence on campus and around the world until moving to
Florida in 2001
.
He once told a reporter, "My philosophy is, 'You rest, you rust.' Look at a plow
.
If it's being
used every day, it's nice and shiny
.
If it sits idle for any length of time, it gathers rust. People are the same
way."
Brother Paul embraced change, as long as it did not mean losing contact with the heritage of this
institution. Having him with us as President-Emeritus, Life Trustee
,
and a campus resident allowed us to
reach into our future without losing contact with our past. He had the humility and simplicity of greatness.
As President, I have been afforded the opportunity to meet many world leaders, and Brother Paul ranked
up there with the best of them. On a personal level, I will miss his deep affection for Marist and our
students, his sage counsel, and his sense of humor
.
Many of us have special memories of Brother Paul. One that stands out in my mind occurred on
November 8, 1997
.
Before a private audience with Pope John Paul 11
,
we were invited with a handful of
others to join the Holy Father in his private chapel in the papal apartment for 7 a
.
m
.
Mass. His Holiness
asked Brother Paul to proclaim the First Reading during that liturgy. As I watched Brother Paul standing
shoulder to shoulder with Pope John Paul, I could feel the special bond between them -- two men who
devoted their entire lives to the service of God, the Church, and the people of the world.



During his life, Brother Paul received many awards and honors. In 1972, Marist College awarded him an
Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree. In 1997, Pope John Paul II awarded Brother Paul one of the
highest honors of the Roman Catholic Church, the "Cross Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice" (for the Church and
the Pontiff). In 2000, Fontaine Hall, the home of our School of Liberal Arts, the Marist Institute for Public
Opinion, and the Office of College Advancement, was named in honor of Brother Paul Ambrose Fontaine.
Knowing the life Brother Paul lived, I am confident he has joined the communion of saints and will be
interceding for all of us in heaven.
Brother Paul is survived by his sister, Lucille Civilik, and numerous nieces and nephews, including
Brother Paul Bernard, F.M.S. He was predeceased by a brother and a sister.