The Good Journey:: 150 Years of History at St. Bonaventure University

Chapter Three: The Plassmann Era (1920–1949)

The Good Journey: 150 Years of History at St. Bonaventure University 36 | Chapter Three: The Plassmann Era (1920–1949) N o prior president was better prepared to head St. Bonaventure’s College than Fr. Thomas Plassmann, OFM. Born on March 19, 1879, in Avenwedde, a district of Westphalia , in Germany, Bernard Plassmann was the son of a lumberman and wood carver. He remembered his boyhood as a happy time “full of fun and action ,” and recalled his youthful desire to be either “a soldier or a friar.” Plassmann left for America at 15 and joined the American Commissariat of German Friars in Patterson, New Jersey, in 1898 and was soon on a train to St. Francis College in Quincy, Illinois. After college, Plassmann entered the Franciscan novitiate and was ordained on June 9, 1906, at Mt. St. Sepulchre in Washington, D.C., by former St. Bonaventure College president Archbishop Diomede Falconio, OFM. Following his ordination, Plassmann enrolled in the graduate program at Catholic University and was awarded a Ph.D. in 1907. He earned a Doctor of Sacred Theology from the Pontifical University of St. Apollinarius in Rome two years later. In 1910, Plassmann went to St. Bonaventure’s to teach at the seminary. Except for his three years as minister provincial (1949 to 1952), Plassmann spent the rest of his long life at St. Bonaventure. He loved the campus, a place he once described as full of “peace, happiness and genuine joy.” Plassmann was a man of great talent and boundless energy. In addition to his countless college duties, he was a member of the advisory board of the National Catholic Education Association and president of its seminary division , founder and president of the Franciscan Educational Conference, president of the Catholic Biblical Association, president of the Association of Colleges and Universities of the State of New York, and member of the College Board of Regents of the State of New York. Before mid-century, most small Catholic colleges were content to rely on the members of the founding religious order for faculty. In 1931, 37 of the 49 faculty at St. Bonaventure’s College were friars. Ten years later, 43 of the college’s 68 faculty were friars. Eight professors had doctorates . By the end of Plassmann’s presidency, all newly The Plassmann Era (1920–1949) 23| Fr. Canisius Connors, OFM, Professor Emeritus, Classics, 1938-1952 Austin Finan, Professor Emeritus, Finance, 1941-1977 Fr. Thomas Plassmann, OFM, 11th president, 1920-1949. The longest serving president of St. Bonaventure, he guided the school through fire, flood and the Depression and set it on its course to become a university. One of his other major goals was accomplished with the opening of Christ the King Seminary, which is now Francis Hall. The Catholic Action Medal was first awarded to former New York Gov. Alfred E. Smith in 1934. ordained friars were expected to have at least a master’s degree. All young priests were expected to be teachers. Those who sought college teaching were expected to be active scholars. After the Second World War, the percentage of friars on St. Bonaventure’s faculty was further reduced and more earned doctorates were held by both friars and laymen . A larger percentage of lay faculty meant that the college had to offer more tangible benefits. The college’s Board of Trustees approved life and medical insurance and a pension plan for all lay faculty in 1947. Plassmann tried to take the church’s ideal for education and place it within the tradition and heritage of Franciscan teachings. He believed that St. Bonaventure’s College needed teachers trained in what he called the “Franciscan Art of Education,” educators who teach by example. “Freedom and joy are as needful to growing youths as sunshine is to plant life.” Alongside the curriculum, the college demonstrated its commitment to Catholic culture by establishing a medal to honor Catholic leaders who actively promoted “Catholic Action.” Plassmann received permission from Pope Pius XI in 1931 to award a Catholic Action medal each year on the feast of St. Francis to “an outstanding Catholic layman.” Alfred E. Smith, former governor of New York and 1928 Democratic candidate for president , became the first Catholic Action Medal recipient. Following the First World War, Catholic colleges began to consider whether they should seek university status . Plassmann first planned to request university status only if he could put together a university composed...