Gerald Michaud

Gerald was born in Fall River, MA on July 28, 1928, to Albert and Marion (Morel) Michaud. His early education was in Catholic schools in his home town. Upon completing his high school with the Brothers of Christian Instruction in Alfred, ME, he became a member of the teaching order in 1945. He was in his 74th year as a religious Brother when he passed away.His teaching assignments, first to elementary schools, included decades as a high school teacher in Biddeford, ME and especially in Fall River, MA. His professional development included graduate work at St. Michael's College, VT (Class of 1960) and a PHD in English from St. Louis University, MO (Class of 1973). A voracious reader, a critical thinker, an exacting teacher, he assiduously prepared his students for success in their college studies. His love of literature and of music enriched their high school experience.He placed his talents at the disposal of his religious community, in addition to teaching, in formation work in the US and in Rome, Italy offering courses in spirituality. Brother Michaud will be missed by his sister Jean Clements of Pleasant Plains, IL and several nieces and nephews, as well as by his religious confreres. A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 10:30 on Saturday, Dec. 7 in the Notre Dame Chapel on the Brothers' campus in Alfred. His body will be received at 4:45 Friday. Burial will be in the nearby Brothers' Cemetery on Shaker Hill. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in his memory to the BROTHERS' RETIREMENT FUND.Arrangements are under the direction of Black Funeral Homes and Cremation Service, Sanford-Springvale.The following is a tribute paid at Brother Robert's 60th anniversary celebration by Brother Francis Blouin.By interest and qualifications, by temperament and education, Brother Robert Michaud is the natural teacher of English. A voracious reader, a critical thinker, a demanding taskmaster, he served much of his life as a teacher of English, from the elementary to the university level during his 35 year career of teaching. He spent most of them as senior high school English teacher.Born in Ste Anne's Parish in Fall River, Massachusetts in 1928, he first met the Brothers of Christian Instruction at Prevost High School in 1942. At the end of his freshman year, he entered the Juniorate at Alfred, Maine, where he completed his high school studies. He fulfilled the canonical Noviate year in Laprise, PQ (Canada) from August 1945 to 1946 before he returned to Alfred to complete his first two years of college studies and graduated from the Brothers' La Mennais College, officially approved in 1952.Robert's first teaching assignment was at St. Zotique Elementary in West Montreal, Canada where his knowledge of French served him well. French grammar was even more challenging than English grammar. He led his fourth graders in dutifully singing "O Canada" every Monday morning. Back in the USA, he learned to teach in the four elementary schools of Sanford, ME, Plattsburgh, NY, Biddeford, ME and Fall River, MA in succession, teaching English grammar and basic reading no less. It was no easy task as the daily spoonfuls of nouns, verbs and adjectives were served to a reluctant flock.In 1954, Robert moved on to high school and settled down in Fall River, his hometown, for the next fourteen years. After a few years of teaching sophomores, he moved up to Senior English teacher exploring the literary world for which he was so well prepared. He set up reading programs for ambitious students and directed the publication of the Prevost yearbook and the Maple Leaf, the school newsletter as his extra-curricular activity. At last too he found a challenge for students willing to work hard, preparing themselves for MIT, Harvard as well as local colleges and universities.During his vacations, Robert spent his summers gathering credits for a Masters in English. After a stint at Catholic University in Washington, DC, he completed his MA in Teaching of English at St. Michael's College in Winooski, VT. In the sixties he spent his summers both teaching classes in logic and art appreciation at first and then followed summer courses at Cornell, Wesleyan in Connecticut and the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. He applied and received a NETA grant for a summer at Virginia Tech. When he was granted a sabbatical in the early seventies, he pursued his PhD as St. Louis University and completed all requirements after three years.Following his graduation, he returned to classrooms for short periods at St. Louis University, at Walsh College in North Canton, Ohio and at Fisher College in Fall River. Much to his chagrin all these classes were short-term positions and he soon found himself back at Bishop Connolly High School in Fall River. There as Chairman of the English Department during 14 years, he continued to prepare seniors in AP classes and advanced novel courses for quality work at the college level. He was especially recognized for preparing students for serious composition work and clear logical flow of text. Father James O'Brien, SJ, then principal of Connolly High praised him for "performing marvelously well" and claimed that Connolly graduates were very "well prepared for the college challenge."At Robert's celebration of fifty years of religious life in 1995, Brother Roger Monfette, his jubilee speaker, compared to masterpieces of his religious and professional life to Vivaldi's (a composer of baroque music) compositions: "As Vivaldi played his violin and poured out harmonious compositions so Brother Robert poured out literary interpretations, harmonious composition techniques and rhythmic English skills upon his students, and like Vivaldi, Robert produced masterpieces."Brother Robert spent many years of his life as house treasurer at Notre Dame Institute in Alfred, Maine pouring over financial reports, banking community money and paying bills, a far cry from literature and grammar and teaching English. It was a second career no less and a shift from the classroom to the business office. However, he never lost touch with writing as he assumed the responsibility of publishing the Clarion- newsletter of the Brothers of the American Province for ten years (2000-2010). With the help of Brother David Denicourt the task of composing, formatting and mailing issues filled many long hours besides his office work. He prided himself on the clarity of his texts, the quality of his short articles and the accuracy of the information.Besides his teaching of English, office work and extracurricular activities, Brother Robert always took his religious commitments very seriously, appreciating his two major opportunities for religious renewal programs, the first in 1967 on the Island of Jersey in the British Channel and the second in the spring of 2001 at Castelgandolfo, Italy. During a stay at the formation house in Cincinnati in 1991, he followed a course in spirituality at the Athenaum, the diocesan seminary in preparation for formation work.When the need arose in the late eighties for a master of novices, he served generously both in Fall River and at the Cincinnati formation house. Later he served as a lecturer on the spirituality of the Founder at the English Second Novitiate in 1991 and a guide on the tour of the Holy Land. He also traveled to Haiti to give the same lectures in French to the Haitian novices. All these lectures came from his translation of Brother Philip Friot's book of the Founder's spirituality, John Mary de la Mennais: the Spirituality of a Man of Action.He served as assistant provincial to Brother Jerome Lessard for three years, a position requiring the best that could be done about the recruiting and the needs of the province in the early nineties: aging of the brotherhood, need for an infirmary and compilation of surveys. After his mandate he became Treasurer at Notre Dame where he took pride in serving his brothers and community.Those who lived with Brother Robert for any time realize that he exemplified fidelity, fidelity to any commitment whether religious or professional. And never was that fidelity more in evidence than during the ten long years that he faithfully and lovingly accompanied his dear mother into decline as she pitifully struggled at the Crawford Nursing Home in Fall River. Every Saturday during those trying times after her stroke, he provided her whatever services were possible: reading to her, reciting the rosary, or trying to entertain her and when even those services were no longer possible, he gave the only gift possible, the gift of his loving presence.