- OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION ABBEY
- DAYLESFORD, PENNSYLVANIA, U.S.A.
- R.D. Hubert Norbert Beaudoin, M.A., O.
Praem.
- Monday, June 29, 1931 - d. Thursday, June 26, 2003
Our brother
Hubert Beaudoin (bow-DOYN) was born in Chicago
in 1931 and after graduating from St. Norbert College, De Pere, Wisconsin
joined the Order. He was vested in 1950, professed in 1952 and ordained
in 1956.
"Hub"
(pronounced Hewb) became a member of the Bishop Neumann faculty in 1957.
The summers of 1957 through 1962 were spent accumulating credits for an
M.A. in the Fine Arts from
Notre Dame
University.
He
taught French at Archmere from 1963 until 1965, and then became novice master at
Daylesford from ’65 through ’69.
Returning
as Prior to Bishop Neumann High School in 1969 until 1972, he also attended
Tyler
School
of Art for post-graduate studies, with part time at Daylesford in the print
shop and teaching at
Devon
Prep.
In 1972, he moved to
Daylesford, took courses at the Pennsylvania Academy
of Fine Arts, was on the Devon
Prep faculty, and from 1973 to 1979 also did retreat work.
From
1980 through 1985, "Hub" was ‘artist in residence’ at Daylesford,
director of Emmaus House, directed retreats, and was chaplain at
Paoli
Memorial
Hospital. He was well known in the Philadelphia area
as a talented artist.
Inflicted
with cancer of the larynx, "Hub" carried on bravely, watercolor
painting, enameling, sketching and drawing.
Speaking through a tracheotomy and eating liquid foods through a tube was
difficult, but Hubert carried on without complaint.
He
spent a year’s sabbatical at Holy Spirit House of Studies in 2001, auditing
courses at CTU, painting, partaking in the cultural life that had been a part of
his youth, and master ‘chef-ing’, preparing foods he loved so much.
He was a constant source of edification for the confreres because of the
infirmity he bore so courageously.
Hubert
died on Thursday,
June 26, 2003 at the age of 71.
Daylesford Abbey holds the majority of the corpus of his creative output.
Other works can be found at St. Norbert Abbey and in private collections.
