Augustine B. Lamond, O.S.A.

1914 – 1989 (December 7)

Augustine Benedict Lamond was born on December 12, 1914 in Lawrence, Massachusetts, to John Lamond and Margaret Hennelly. He was one of five children, four of whom entered religious life. His older brother, John, and his younger brother, Bernard, both were members of our Province, and one of his sisters, Margaret, entered the Sisters of Notre Dame. Augustine was baptized at Saint Mary’s Church, Lawrence on December 16, 1914. His primary and three years of his secondary   education were at the parish schools of Saint Rita and Saint Mary and Lawrence Public School. At the end of his junior year Augustine entered Augustinian Academy, Staten Island, New York, as a postulant. He graduated in June of 1932 and that September entered Our Mother of Good Counsel Novitiate, New Hamburg, New York, where he professed simple vows on September 11, 1933. The young Augustinian did his college studies at Saint Mary’s Hall, Villanova, Pennsylvania, and received his A.B. degree in philosophy in June 1937. On September 11 of that same year, he professed solemn vows. He studied theology at Augustinian College, Washington, DC, where he was ordained to the priesthood  on June 10, 1940, by Bishop Corrigan. While pursuing theological studies, he took summer courses in education and library science at the Catholic University in Washington, DC.

Father Lamond’s first assignments were to high schools in the midwest; Saint Rita in Chicago, Illinois, and Saint Thomas High School in Rockford, Illinois. During those years he successfully studied for a B.S. in library science which he received from Rosary College in River Forest, Illinois, in 1944. His next assignments were in Cuba, first at the Universidad de Villanueva in Marianao from 1948 to 1950, and later from 1951 to 1953 at Colegio San Agustin in Havana. Between these two assignments he served as parochial assistant at Our Mother of Consolation in Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania.

On his return from Cuba, from 1953 to 1956, he was assigned to Saint Augustine Parish, Troy, New York, where he taught part-time at Central Catholic High School. He also taught at Monsignor Bonner High School in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, and was the first librarian at Austin Preparatory School, Reading. Mass., from 1963 to 1966. He also served as assistant at Saint James the Apostle, Carthage, N. Y.; Saint Nicholas of Tolentine, in Bronx, N. Y.; and Saint Laurence O’Toole and Holy Rosary, both in Lawrence, Mass. In 1967 he was transferred to Merrimack College in North Andover, Massachusetts, where he served as reference librarian until 1971 when he retired at the monatery there.Although retired,Father Lamond continued to carry out research  work on a subject that had held his interest all his life – tracing. He also became active and well known for his work with Alcoholics Anonymous in the greater Lawrence area, compiling data on the origin of the organization and the possible connection with the ancient “Serenity Prayer” of Boethius. Following a lengthy illness he died on December 7, 1989 at Holy Family Hospital in Meuthen, Massachusetts.

A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated on December 9 at the monastery chapel of Our Mother of Good Counsel. The prior of the community, Father John Driscoll, O.S.A., was the celebrant with Fathers John and Bernard Lamond, O.S.A., concelebrating, and Sister Teresa Lamond, S.N.D., as reader. Father Lamond is buried in the Augustinian plot at Saint Mary’s Cemetery, Lawrence, Massachusetts.