• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

University of Portland Museum

  • Home
  • About
  • This Day
    • The Bells Are Ringing
    • Library Dedication, 1958
    • Gute Reisen
    • Veteran’s Day
    • Fire on Campus
    • Engineering Building
    • Outbreak of World War I
  • Featured
    • Campus Archaeology: On the Shoulders of Giants
    • The Walls Came Tumbling Down
    • Broken Wall Memorial is Broken
    • 2nd Century: Second Wave
    • Retiring Faculty
      • 2019 Retiring Faculty
      • 2018 Retiring Faculty
      • 2017 Retiring Faculty
      • 2016 Retiring Faculty
      • 2015 Retiring Faculty
      • 2014 Retiring Faculty
    • TGIF all-class
    • No frogs were hurt in this demonstration
    • Orientation at the UP Campus
    • Upsilon Omega Pi Hearse
  • In the Beginning
    • Rev. John A. Zahm, CSC: Name-dropper, Promise Keeper
    • Cornerstone West Hall
    • Founder’s Day
    • Another Day
    • Day One
  • UP Trivia
    • NCAA or NAIA, First Nat’l Title Revisited
    • Medal of the Year
    • Hanging Up the Pads
    • Football
    • Cannons on the Bluff
    • Pilots on the Bluff
    • Columbia Prep, 1901-1955
    • Hours and Bases
    • domainname.com
    • Wally Pilot
    • 50 Years: A-Meh-zing Mehling
    • Broken Wall Memorial
  • Exhibits
    • Museum Photo Gallery
    • Football on the Bluff: 1902-1950
    • Mago Hunt Center 40th Anniversary
    • Salzburg Study Abroad
    • Museum Display in Buckley Center
  • People
    • Memorials
      • Rev. Claude Pomerleau, C.S.C., 1938-2019
      • Dr. Arthur Schulte, Jr., 1928-2018
      • Dr. Art Schulte: A Life on the Bluff
      • Brian Doyle, 1956–2017
      • Rev. Charles David Sherrer, C.S.C.,1935–2017
      • Rev. Ronald Wasowski, C.S.C., 1946–2016
      • Dr. James Covert, 1932-2016
      • Dr. Manuel Macias, 1929-2016
      • Dr. Kate Regan, 1959-2014
      • Martha Wachsmuth: 1921-2015
      • Rev. Tom Oddo, 1944-1989
      • Dr. David Alexander, 1957-2013
    • A Given Life
      • The Pioneer Four
      • Flowering in the Rose City
      • Rev. Richard Berg, C.S.C.
      • Rev. John Molter, C.S.C.
      • Sisters of Mary of the Presentation
      • Holy Cross Leadership
      • Rev. John Delaunay, C.S.C.
      • Holy Cross at UP
      • Sr. Angela Hoffman, O.S.B.
      • Rev. Art Schoenfeldt, C.S.C.
      • Rev. George Dum, C.S.C.
      • Rev. Maurice Rigley, C.S.C.
  • Recent Posts
    • National Scar-tissue, November 22, 1963
    • Nurses are Superheroes
    • Lamp of Learning
    • Sangfroid: Poised and Professional, after December 7, 1941
    • Five Months in 1945
    • Women’s First: Engineering
    • Taste of UP for Families
    • Prophecy and Visions
    • The Bells Are Ringing
  • Campaign Trail
    • President Ronald Reagan, 1984
    • Robert F. Kennedy, 1968
    • Nelson Rockefeller, 1964
    • John F. Kennedy, 1960
    • Harold Stassen, 1952

A Given Life: Exuberant & Overflowing

March 11, 2015 By Carolyn

A genial and irrepressible Holy Cross priest, Fr. John Delaunay’s life had a tendency to spill-over into the lives of peers and students, and across borders, national and academic.  A consecrated religious and UP professor who was hard to sum up or contain.

Rev. John Delaunay, C.S.C., 1941
Rev. John Delaunay, C.S.C., 1941

Fr. Delaunay was born in Paris, educated at the Sorbonne, came to the United States as a refugee in 1903, and after studies at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. became a Holy Cross priest in 1909.  One of his first assignments, therefore (?), sent him to the mission territories that are now Bangladesh.  He arrived at UP to teach languages, moving thence to the Departments of Philosophy and Education, and in 1949 became Professor of Psychology — having had to found the Department of Psychology to achieve this goal.  The faculty and students of the Psychology Department immediately created a pioneer program in clinical psychology, the Child Guidance Center, to provide counseling services for the greater Portland area community.  At first housed on campus, the community services section evolved into an independent organization.  After a half-century of family counseling, this legacy of Fr. Delaunay closed in 2003.

Delaunay Institute Brochure Cover, 1987
Delaunay Institute Brochure Cover, 1987

Fr. Delaunay died in 1953.  His name survives in a building we never built, and hundreds of alumni lives.  In 2012, alumnus E. John Rumpakis ’54 endowed a Professorship in Hellenic Studies at UP, remembering Fr. Delaunay, who “believed in educating the whole man,” Rumpakis said.  “It still resounds in my mind.”  (Furey, 05-22-2012); http://www.up.edu/shownews.aspx?id=4605 ).

Fr. Delaunay’s services to the University are legend; see the profile of the man in Portland Magazine, Winter 1998, pp. 14-19.  For a history of the Delaunay Institute, see The Beacon, 30 March 1973, p. 4; for a personal history and account of the Center’s closing, see also the note from Dr. Paul Myers, Director, University Health Center, in Portland Magazine, Summer 2003, p. 8; who quotes Fr. Delaunay as writing: “My life ambition is to make my psychology department the leading social work center in the Catholic West.  I am very hopeful that it shall do its share toward child delinquency prevention.  I shall have a special room for the direction of parents, since there are more problem parents than problem children . . .”

Click on image to enlarge
Delaunay Institute for Mental Health Brochure, 1987
Delaunay Mental Health Center, 1968
Artist's Sketch of Proposed Delaunay Memorial Center, 1961 Log
Fr. John Delaunay with Students in Front of Christie Hall
Alumni Bulletin, October 1976

Filed Under: A Given Life Leave a Comment

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Subscribe to this site via email


Highlights from the Museum

Columbia Preparatory School memorabilia, 1901-1955

Hours and Location

University of Portland Museum
014 Shipstad Hall

Available only by e-email at:  museum@up.edu

Recent Posts

  • Spirit of Portland U Pennant
  • From the University Bulletin, themes of mission and value
  • Battling Germs
  • On the Bluff: looking out, looking up
  • Tonsillectomy Bag
  • A Given Life: Entwined with Learning
  • TWIRP DANCE (=The Woman is Requested to Pay)
  • A Most Noble Order Indeed

Archives

[footer_backtotop]

Copyright © 2021 · University of Portland