St. Bonaventure University Starts 150th Anniversary Celebration

St. Bonaventure University began celebrating its 150th anniversary Tuesday with a 90-minute Convocation that paid homage to the college’s founders by graciously thanking more than two dozen of their descendants. “We are just so honored and humbled by the way the university has gone out of its way to recognize our family,” said 2001 SBU alumnus Andrew Kernan, great-great-great-great-grandson of Nicholas and Mary Devereux, the Utica benefactors who donated the land for the college. “Everyone at the university has just been wonderful, making these past couple of days as exciting and enriching for us as possible.” Kernan, along with his wife, parents and two aunts, accepted as a token of the University’s appreciation specially commissioned paintings of Devereux Hall, created by Allegany artist Anne Conroy-Baiter. Conroy-Baiter paintings of the campus were presented to more than 20 members of the Pietrobattista family, descendants of Fr. Pamphilo da Magliano, the college’s founding friar and first president. The Pietrobattistas traveled this week from Italy to be part of the celebration. The entire program was translated into Italian for them by Jean-François Godet-Calogeras, associate professor of Franciscan Studies, using wireless headsets. More than 300 members of the class of 2008 donned their Commencement robes six weeks early and were honored at the Convocation with 150th Anniversary medallions.