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Mother Mary Angelique
Founding Superior General |
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Mother Angelique
Ayers entered the Congregation of Divine Providence in 1900. She served as
the College's first Dean and Registrar until 1923 and, in that year,
assumed the office of Academic Dean, a position she held until her
retirement from active participation in College affairs in 1960.
Mother Angelique served the Congregation as
Superior General from 1943 to 1955, and was a member of the governing
board of the group from 1927 until her retirement in 1960. She began in
1901 as an instructor at what was then Our Lady of the Lake Academy, and
in 1912 received her B.A. in English from the newly-established College as
one of its first graduates. She also earned an M. A. from Catholic
University in Washington, D. C. in 1913, and was later both professor of
English and chairman of that department.
Mother Angelique presided over the school's
growth from the small academy of the early 1900's through the early years
as the city's first accredited college, to the thriving institution it
became. Under the guidance of Mother Angelique the College developed an
outstanding School of Education. She also rook responsibility for the
establishment of The Worden School of Social Service, the first such
school in Texas, which became nationally prominent for its training of
skilled social workers. Before her retirement, she also helped to make
plans for the Harry Jersig Speech and Hearing Center, which opened in
1960, the only institution in Texas combining clinical service with
professional education in speech pathology.
Born Claudia Ayres at Kosciusco,
Mississippi, on April, 1882, she spent 49 years of her life serving as an
educator at Our Lady of the Lake College until she retired in 1960. She
died at the age of 86, September 13, 1968. |
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