Administrative/Biographical History
The Saint Michael’s Corporation elected Rev. Ernest Salmon President of the College following the 1907 General Chapter. Salmon had been at Saint Michael’s since its inception and was an easy choice to take over from Prével. During his term in office he oversaw the incorporation of the College by a special act of the Vermont legislature. This act gave the College the right to grant degrees (rather than simply giving diplomas). He served as Superior of the house until 1913, when he became the novice master and pastor of the parish in Swanton as well as Provincial of the Edmundites in America. He did, however, continue to serve as the head of the Board of Trustees of the Saint Michael’s Institute and as the President of the Saint Michael’s College Board of Trustees. (From 1912 until 1919 Rev. Edmund Total was the Superior of the Saint Michael’s College house but was not officially named the President of the College or the chair of the Board of Trustees. Rev. Salmon, who had preceded Total as Superior, was the President of the Board of Saint Michael’s Institute, the civil corporation that managed the temporal affairs of the college, and was the President of the Board of Trustees of Saint Michael’s College (which carried with it the ex officio office of President of the College). It is clear from other evidence, however, that Superior Total did “have the charge and supervision of all affairs of the College” specific rights granted to the president of the college in section 3 of the 1913 act to incorporate the College.)
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