Belanger

Brother Joseph L.R. “Roland” Belanger, F.M.S.

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Brother Joseph L.R. “Roland” Belanger, F.M.S.

who served and resided at Marist College in Poughkeepsie for many years, died April 21 at Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx. He was 84.

After seven years teaching at Marist Brothers’ schools, including Mount St. Michael Academy in the Bronx, he joined the Marist College faculty in 1959. He taught courses in French language and literature as well as English and other humanities courses. He also helped establish several programs at the college, including the Modern Languages Department and the French major. He was designated a Marist College Heritage Professor in 2004.

In 1996 he traveled to China for a year, where he taught English at Lujiang University in Xiamen. He later offered his view of China in a book, “China Prism: Red-Yellow-Green.”

He retired from full-time teaching in 1997, and in his last years of retirement he resided at the Marist Brothers community at Mount St. Michael.

Born in Lawrence, Mass., he entered the Marist Juniorate in 1938, and professed vows as a brother in 1948. He earned a bachelor’s degree at Marian College, now Marist College, and master’s degrees from St. John’s University and Middlebury College. He received his doctorate in French from New York University.

He is survived by two sisters, Irene Golden and Rita Cote, and three brothers, Emile, Raymond and J. Ernest.

A Funeral Mass was offered April 26 at Our Lady of Good Counsel Church in Methuen, Mass.; a prayer service was held at Marist College April 28. Burial was in the Marist Brothers Cemetery in Esopus.

Brother Joseph L.R. “Roland” Belanger, F.M.S.