This fall, Assumption announced the naming of the D’Amour College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the Froelich School of Nursing, named for generous alumni whose recent gifts in support of these schools and their academic programs will help further the University’s mission and expand academic opportunities for students in these schools.
Donald AP’60, AU’64, HD’10 and Michele HD’10 D’Amour, both of whom have served on the University’s Board of Trustees, are longtime supporters of Assumption. Known for founding Big Y Supermarkets, Donald is a retired chairman of the board and CEO while Michele previously served as the company’s educational partnership administrator.
This recent seven-figure gift is the latest in the D’Amours’ support for Assumption. In 2008, the D’Amours made a historic $4.2 million gift to Assumption – the largest in the institution’s history – which helped establish the Donald and Michele D‘Amour Chair in the Catholic Intellectual Tradition, endowed a distinguished speakers program, increased the endowment for what is now the Core Texts & Enduring Questions Program (CTEQ), and established a faculty development grant fund. Since then, the D’Amours have continued to support the enhancement and expansion of Assumption’s unique liberal arts education in a variety of capacities, including through the D’Amour Center for Teaching Excellence (DCTE); the D’Amour Student Fellows program, which invites some of Assumption’s most advanced students to help inform the work of the DCTE; and the Michele and Donald D‘Amour Humanitas Award, presented to a student excelling in the CTEQ minor. The Donald and Michele D’Amour Plaza outside of the Tsotsis Family Academic Center is also a recognition of their generous support of Assumption’s current capital campaign.
Christopher Froelich ’77 is the product of five generations of medical professionals, spanning from his grandfather down to his grandnieces. To honor his family’s commitment to providing unsurpassed and compassionate care by supporting the education of future nurses, he made a generous seven-figure gift to Assumption as a lasting tribute to all those in his family dedicated to medicine, and to help form generations of future nurses who choose Assumption for its transformative education.
Froelich, of Spring Lake, NJ, is a successful entrepreneur who has spent his career expanding a number of startups into national brands, with a focus on the travel industry, and he worked at the executive level for American Express for 15 years. He continues to invest in real estate and consult for a number of travel and restaurant marketing-related businesses.
“The Assumption community is grateful to Donald, Michele, and Chris for their generous gifts to the University,” said President Cesareo. “Assumption’s Catholic liberal arts education provides students with a strong intellectual foundation and the skills needed to deepen and explore their sense of purpose and vocation. The D’Amours’ gift will enhance our mission to deliver a quality, personalized education to students in an environment that fosters an appreciation for timeless questions regarding the common good, the dignity of the human person, the pursuit of truth, and the cultivation of prudential judgment. The University also strives to form individuals who apply their Assumption education to serve and better their communities, and Chris and his family will continue their legacy of service for generations to come through this generous gift to empower nursing students not only to be excellent practitioners but also ethical and caring nurses, formed by a distinctively Catholic program.”
