When Ursuline Sister Mary Michael Barrow returned to Maple Mount in 1945, she realized that the Mount Saint Joseph Junior College for Women – which she had helped open 20 years earlier – had not grown as the Sisters had hoped.

At the time, Owensboro had no four-year coed college. Just a year earlier, the GI Bill had become law, giving veterans returning from World War II stipends to attend college or trade school. Sister Mary Michael voiced her opinion that returning servicemen would use the G.I. Bill to attend college, and if there was no college for them in Owensboro, they would find one elsewhere. That was an important step in developing Brescia College.

That story was relayed by several speakers on Nov. 9, 2025, at Brescia University, during a ceremony to dedicate a Veterans Monument on the college campus.

“Without veterans, Brescia may not exist,” said Lark Buckman, a veteran and 1969 Brescia graduate, who serves on the school’s Board of Directors. “After much prayer and planning, Brescia was opened in 1950.”

It was Frank Werner, a 1973 Brescia graduate, who was the first to ask if there were a veterans’ memorial on campus. That led to the formation of a veterans committee, who needed to raise $20,000 to pay for the memorial. Instead, they raised $27,000, Buckman said.

The ceremony, just two days before Veterans Day, featured the local Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 696 presenting the colors. Inclement weather forced the ceremony into the Brescia Chapel until it was time to unveil the monument.

Brescia President Madison Silvert told the veterans present that they are an example of what true servant leadership is about.

“No piece of marble will adequately thank you,” Silvert said.

Sister Sharon Sullivan, congregational leader of the Ursuline Sisters, spoke of being the daughter of a World War II veteran who attended law school thanks to the GI Bill.

Veterans and Brescia first connected when returning veterans approached Sister Alberta Birkhead about taking her business classes in Owensboro, Sister Sharon said.

“In September 1945, Joseph Leroy Yeand was discharged from the Navy and began classes at MSJ Junior College, and Marcellus Bonaventure Oberst was discharged from the Marines in January 1946 and began attending MSJ Junior College classes in Owensboro that fall,” Sister Sharon said. The Sisters knew it was time to expand their offerings in Owensboro.

“In the closing years of the 1940s there were 76 students in the Owensboro classes, 40 of whom were men, veterans on the GI Bill,” Sister Sharon said. “When classes officially became Brescia College in 1950, there were 241 students, 60 of whom were veterans – 58 men and two women. Ever since, Brescia University has welcomed both active and veteran service men and women in all majors. I have had at least five veteran advisees who chose special education, and many others in my classes.”

“I must also add that in ways wholly unexpected, each veteran or active service member has expanded my understanding of prayer and service and commitment,” Sister Sharon said. “For I have had to learn to pray not just for an anonymous group but for men and women whom I have come to know – whose stories I have heard – who place themselves or have placed themselves in harm’s way, for me.”

Sister Sharon spoke of the similar promises and oaths that both Ursuline Sisters and service members make.

“I would not be surprised to discover – whether you are in active service or a discharged veteran – that in many ways you still feel yourselves bound by that oath,” Sister Sharon said. “For we know ‘once an Ursuline, always an Ursuline,’ and I’ve heard the same is true for you, ‘once a Marine, always a Marine.’ I might add, that once you embrace Brescia, Brescia will always be a part of you.”

Those gathered then headed out into a blustery freezing rainstorm to unveil the monument near Seventh and St. Ann streets. It says the following: