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A Vision for the Future: The Center for the Common Good

Story posted April 07, 2006

Bob Morrell ’47 and his family have been shaping the greater Brunswick community for more than 70 years as proprietors of Downeast Energy and Building supply. The Morrell family also has a long history at the College. In their alumni ranks, Bob and his brother Richard ’50 (a Bowdoin trustee) count their late grandfather Hartley C. Baxter 1878, late father Allen Morell ’22, late uncle Mal Morrell ’24 (Bowdoin’s athletic director from 1928-1967 and the namesake of Morrell Gym), as well as numerous other family members. Now, Bob and his wife Nancy will continue the family legacy at the College by helping to start a new initiative to shape the future— they have made the first gift toward the creation of Bowdoin’s Center for the Common Good Fund, which will endow the work of Bowdoin students in service to the common good.

Bowdoin is establishing the Center for the Common Good to acknowledge and affirm that “literary institutions are founded and endowed for the common good, and not for the private advantage of those who resort to them for education,” as put forth by the College’s first president, Joseph McKeen in 1802. With the Center for the Common Good, Bowdoin is poised to take even greater strides in its formal recognition of the indisputable value of service in developing leaders for our society.

“We were impressed when we heard about the Center for the Common Good,” Bob says. “It’s a great thing for students to be familiar with—to realize the importance of the common good. It’s as important in one’s life as any classroom study.” Those impressions led Bob and Nan to begin the effort by contributing to the Center for the Common Good Fund.

While the Center for the Common Good will have a physical presence on campus in order to underscore its importance at Bowdoin, the Center for the Common Good Fund is not for the purpose of facilities; it is aimed at strengthening and expanding the program itself. The Fund will help consolidate, coordinate, and expand Bowdoin’s capacity for reflective practice in public service by developing community service opportunities and by formally linking the concept of service to the common good to the College’s curriculum.

“Activity toward the common good is extremely important,” Bob asserts. “It is beneficial for students to get involved at an early age. In the long run, it will benefit the College as well.”

By connecting service and learning, inside and outside the classroom, and by using these opportunities to foster leadership development, the Center for the Common Good will offer rich opportunities for intellectual and personal growth and will become a unique model for public service in higher education. It will highlight and build further partnerships between Bowdoin and communities in order to address public issues in Maine and around the world. It will represent a renewed commitment in the 21st century to President McKeen’s founding vision for Bowdoin College. And, it begins with the gift of Bob and Nan Morrell.

For more information about gifts to the Center for the Common Good, please contact Eli Orlic, Associate Vice President/Director of Capital Giving, (207) 725-3712 or eorlic@bowdoin.edu.