Merrimack College dedicated the Dr. Alfred L. Arcidi Center on Thursday, as President Christopher Hopey cut the ribbon surrounded by the benefactor family that has sent three generations to Merrimack College.
The ribbon-cutting preceded a scaled-down dinner, at which donors and friends of Merrimack came together to honor those who have supported the Together for Good campaign, including the Arcidi, Gallant and Edmunds families.
Hopey talked about Merrimack’s progress, including recent recognitions for academics, athletics and the transformational nature of a Merrimack education.
“Truly, we have come into our own as an institution and as a community,” he said. “These recognitions are not the reasons for our success — they are the results of it.”
Part of that success, Hopey said, is due to “the support, the vision and the wisdom of those like the families we honor this evening — the Gallants, the Edmundses and especially the Arcidi family, whose legacy now greets everyone who enters the campus.”
The Arcidi Center, named for the late Dr. Alfred L. Arcidi ’53, will house the College’s Welcome Center and the O’Brien Center for Career Development. Arcidi, who built a dental practice into the thriving multi-state Whittier Health Network, “looked to the future while always remembering where he came from.”
A short video recounted for the attendees the life and legacy of Dr. Arcidi, and was followed by remarks from his sons Alfred’84, chairman of the board of trustees; Philip’81, chair of the trustees’ committee on real estate; and Michael ’85.
The Gallants were honored for their lead gift to support athletics through the Competing for Good goal of the capital campaign, and the Edmunds family — children of the late Robert F. Edmunds Jr. ’66, a Merrimack trustee — for their gift to endow a scholarship in his memory.
The event was scaled back due to simultaneous events in Lawrence, North Andover and Andover as both campus officials and guests from the local area worked to respond.
