“It’s a very simple concept: if you can’t change the world all at once, change it one person at a time” -Seán Sammon, F.M.S.
Brother Seán was the best mentor and friend that I could have ever asked for. He was always there for me whenever I needed him, and always pushed me to be the best version of myself.
Brother Seán dedicated his life to making our world a better place. After becoming a Marist Brother and graduating from Marist College in 1970, he always found a way to fight for the most vulnerable in our society. After graduating from college, he worked with at-risk youth in NYC as a guidance counselor and taught in Chicago, as well. He always had his sights on getting his doctorate in Psychology, and eventually found himself at the front of his graduating class at Fordham. Brother Seán was an incredible clinical psychologist, and briefly served as the clinical director of the House of Affirmations before being elected Provincial of the Marist Brothers Poughkeepsie Province in the U.S.A.
During his tenure leading the Poughkeepsie Province, his passion and ability to get things done was noticed by other congregations and was further elected President of the Conference of Major Superiors of Men. He was elected Vicar General and eventually served as the Superior General of the Marist Brothers throughout the world and lived in Rome for 16 years. He was an epic writer as well, writing several books about psychology, religious life, and spirituality, too.
I first had the pleasure of meeting him when he came back to the States and served as scholar-in-residence at our alma mater, Marist College. I vividly remember the first time we met at a board of trustees meeting, and he invited me over his house for dinner. We would always joke about the first time I came over – me fully dressed up, and him wearing sweatpants. It was that night I first tried a French cheese that I had never previously heard of. We became fast friends.
Brother Seán would always share the best stories from the dozens of countries he worked in and would always challenge us to consider how we can make the world a better place. He shared stories about the wealth to be found in diverse countries and was the one that encouraged me to go abroad as often as I could and pushed me to apply to the many graduate and research programs that changed my life. He was the one that encouraged me to seek admission to Columbia, Fulbright, and Vanderbilt, and even served as an invaluable editor on my doctoral thesis, as well.
I am really going to miss heading upstate to visit him, planning out international trips together, and getting into philosophical conversations about just about anything. I am going to miss our hours-long phone calls and trips to NYC and around the Hudson Valley. And yes, I will miss his incredible cooking and his world-famous crab cakes, too.
He truly was a legend that changed the world.
Brother Seán, I will always look up to you, and will be forever grateful for everything you have done for me.
Please Rest in Peace.
I love you and will miss you forever.
Andrew Paulsen 