Press Release
Thursday, June 11, 2020
The Université de Moncton Mourns a Pioneer
The university community is saddened by the death of Ms. Muriel Kent Roy, former Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Director of the Centre d’études acadiennes Anselme-Chiasson. She died on Tuesday, June 2, 2020, at the age of 98.
Born in Moncton in 1921, Professor Roy received her post-secondary education at the Collège Marguerite-Bourgeois in Montréal and at the Université de Montréal, from which she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1942. She was the second Acadian woman to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree at a time when universities were very heavily male-dominated.
“Today we’ve lost an extremely influential figure at the Université de Moncton,” Jacques Paul Couturier, interim President and Vice-Chancellor, stated. “Besides leaving her mark as a professor and as Director of the Centre d’études acadiennes Anselme-Chiasson, she was a leader in preserving Acadian heritage and promoting the status of women. Under her dynamic leadership, the church in Grand-Pré was transformed into one of the Acadian people’s most important heritage sites. We will remember her as a great pioneer of Acadian History.”
Muriel Kent Roy was a Companion of the Order of Regents of the Université de Moncton. She was a great philanthropist and a generous donor, and she created the Fonds de recherche Muriel-K.-Roy to support research at the Centre d’études acadiennes Anselme-Chiasson.
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