Part of  Celebrating 100 years, Providence College : values that endur

Grace, Richard

English

DigitalCommons@Providence

Providence College DigitalCommons@Providence History & Classics Faculty Publications History & Classics 2017 From Thee We Learned: A History of Providence College, 1992-2017 Richard Grace Providence College, rjgrace@providence.edu Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.providence.edu/history_fac Grace, Richard, "From Thee We Learned: A History of Providence College, 1992-2017" (2017). History & Classics Faculty Publications. 16. https://digitalcommons.providence.edu/history_fac/16 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the History & Classics at DigitalCommons@Providence. It has been accepted for inclusion in History & Classics Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@Providence. For more information, please contact dps@providence.edu. 1  Preface  As I emerged from a meeting on the second floor of Alumni Hall recently, I stopped to peer down through the big glass panels that overlook the basketball court. The lights were out; no one was there. But for a moment there were ghosts from the ‘60s: Johnny Egan, flashing downcourt like a bolt of lightning; Lenny Wilkens scoring almost effortlessly; Jim Hadnot swishing a desperation shot from near half-court with one second left; my friend and I, in the front row of the bleachers, with scrupulous politeness informing a nearby referee that he had missed a call. Different nights were fused together in the editing room of my own mental archive. History? Yes, in a way, but very personal history — fashioned partly by memory and partly by imagination rather than research.  Recalling those moments took longer than the actual occurrences themselves. For the excitement of our past lives, recollections are savored and stretched and enshrined in stories that we tell over and over again. We do remember the painful, though we soften the sting with forgiveness or resignation or understanding or even newly found self-criticism.   When I was asked to write the history of the College for the quarter century that concludes its centennial, I knew immediately that I had to avoid creating a parade of anecdotes.  I had witnessed those years firsthand, and the temptation was going to be great to tell stories that were dramatic or poignant or funny or hysterical in any way that you might use that word — how Father So-and-So had forgotten his class notes and … How the young woman with the curly hair had … How Professor X had thought it was Tuesday and …  I determined that I would write this account as an historical essay about the evolution of a living institution. So it is not a chronological narrative. Most of the time we normally think of 2  history as a sequential telling of what happened over a defined span of time. What you will find in these pages is more an analysis of how we got to be who we are, how the paths we trod were relocated and led us to new buildings, how we reconceived our educational mission, how we played and cheered and celebrated and mourned — in short, how we came to be Providence College at age 100. The fact that I am saying “we” reveals that this report is told by an insider who cannot claim the distant neutrality that historians normally like to maintain. After all, I am writing about a place that I love. But I have been trying not to write sanitized history or to write a song of praise that I would pass off as history.  Had she lived to celebrate the centennial, Donna McCaffrey would have been writing this account of the period from 1992 to the present. Her admirable work on the history of Providence College covered the first 75 years in the life of the College. We were colleagues for many years in the Department of History, and we spoke about this new installment of the school’s history the last time I saw her, just months before she died in January 2016. I was glad to have her advice. While I am not trying to replicate her method or style, I hope that her efforts and mine will give alumni, friends, benefactors, and general readers a good understanding of the life of the College since that famous photograph was taken on the opening day in 1919. So many people have helped me to assemble this account that I dare not try to log all their names here. Many members of the College community have been generous with their time in giving me insights which I would not have gotten by other kinds of research. I tried to gather as many perspectives as possible, so as not to miss something important. No doubt I have bypassed names, events, and trends that have special importance to some readers. I have neglected some of the notable academics who enriched the College with their dedication over long careers, just as I have chosen not to recount some legendary student shenanigans; and I have 3  not given due attention to some of the athletic teams and some of the major legislation of the Faculty Senate. This is, after all, an essay, and not a comprehensive record of an epoch. To a certain extent, omissions were dictated by word count parameters, and in other instances, omissions are my strategic choices or my missteps.   I am indebted to Melanie Sullivan of the Office of Institutional Research, and to Joseph Velleca, graduate assistant in the Department of History, for their help in researching some of the topics in this history, and I wish to acknowledge the assistance of Russell Franks and Robin Rancourt of the College archives. I am also grateful to my long-time colleagues, Mario DiNunzio and Brian Barbour, witnesses to a great deal of PC history, for their critical reading of the manuscript. They have all made my task easier.   Shall we proceed? Curtain going up!   

From Thee We Learned: A History of Providence College, 1992-2017

https://digitalcommons.providence.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1016&context=history_fac

From Thee We Learned: A History of Providence College, 1992-2017

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