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Mother Mary Angelique
Founding Superior General |
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. |
