On a September day 100 years ago DePaul University welcomed its first 70 students, primarily sons of Chicago’s Catholic immigrants, to its new college and preparatory seminary. As waves of immigrants filled Chicago’s neighborhoods at the turn of the century, bringing their rich religious and ethnic traditions, DePaul embraced them. Today, DePaul students come from 86 different countries. Back in 1898, Lincoln Park was the only place DePaul called home. Today, Lincoln Park, South Loop, Naperville, Des Plaines, Oak Forest, Lake County and Hong Kong provide the classrooms for DePaul’s nearly 18,000 students. From the very beginning when it opened as St. Vincent’s College at the request of Chicago’s Archbishop, to today, Chicago and DePaul’s destiny and strength have been intertwined.

"Since 1898, DePaul’s mission has been to make access to high-quality, value-driven education a reality for the people of Chicago," said the Rev. John P. Minogue, C.M., DePaul’s 10^th president. "With God’s blessing, DePaul has extended its mission beyond Chicago to both the young college student and the experienced professional. We are excited to invite the Chicago community and alumni worldwide to join us in our celebration of hope and commitment for the next 100 years."

In the last century DePaul has built a family of 100,000 alumni, 52,000 of whom bring their varied talents to the Chicago area. Prominent alumni include Mayor Richard M. Daley, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer George Perle, former NAACP Executive Director Benjamin Hooks, Chicago Public Library Commissioner Mary Dempsey and actress Gillian Anderson.

Constant throughout this century of progress has been the patronage of St. Vincent de Paul, (1581– 1660) founder of the Congregation of the Mission, known as the Vincentians, whose values shaped DePaul. In that spirit the university fosters a respect for individual dignity, strives to build a coalition of students, staff and faculty of diverse cultural backgrounds and, through higher education, instills them with a dedication to the service of others. Today DePaul often refers to itself as Catholic by tradition, Vincentian by inspiration and urban by design.

This philosophy has guided the university’s centennial observance. "The centennial celebrates DePaul’s 100 years of achievement in education and service," said Thomas G. Fuechtmann, centennial director. "It is an opportunity to say ‘thank you’ to all who share the DePaul story, and to invite engagement in DePaul’s mission for its second century."

September offers a host of centennial activities, beginning with New Student Service Day Sept. 8, when hundreds of students will volunteer at 50 sites throughout Chicago. On Sept. 10, DePaul will host a public birthday party at DePaul Center Plaza, 1 E. Jackson Blvd., with musical entertainment, prizes and the honorary renaming of a block of Jackson as "DePaul Way." That same day the Center for Church/State Studies will launch a yearlong breakfast lecture series featuring perspectives on church and state in different religious traditions. University of Chicago Professor Emeritus Martin Marty will be the first guest.

Activities continue later in the month with the first of several distinguished speakers who have been named Centennial Laureates. Economist and philosopher Amartya Sen will begin that series Sept. 17. On Sept. 25, the university will unveil a new bust of St. Vincent, open an exhibit of his belongings and host a book-signing with the authors of a 380-page illustrated history of DePaul. Later that day the DePaul Art Gallery will open its fall exhibit, "The Natural Order of Things: Visualizing Evolutionary Theory."

DePaul has moved its annual convocation marking the beginning of the school year to McCormick Place South Sept. 26 to accommodate 2,500 alumni and friends who will join in the official centennial celebration. The following day, Daniel Goldin, the top administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, will visit DePaul to give the keynote address at a dedication ceremony for the new William G. McGowan Biological and Environmental Sciences Center in Lincoln Park.

With October comes another wave of centennial activities, beginning on Oct. 1 when acclaimed author and Harvard University Professor Stephen Jay Gould, a Centennial Laureate, lectures on life’s history. Oct. 2 and 3 bring the School of Accountancy’s "Global Advances in International Accounting Research" conference expected to attract scholars from 25 countries. Oct. 15 features the second installment of the Church/State Studies lecture series, this time spotlighting Rev. Robert Drinan, a Georgetown University law professor who will speak on the Roman Catholic understanding of the relationship between church and state.

Ethics becomes the order of the day Oct. 28 when business ethics scholar Kenneth Goodpaster offers a workshop on integrating ethics into the curriculum and gives the annual Public Services Graduate Program lecture. Immediately following, on Oct. 29-31, DePaul’s Institute for Business and Professional Ethics hosts "From the Universities to the Marketplace: The Business Ethics Journey," a national business ethics conference.

Also in October, the university will break ground on a Habitat for Humanity home that university groups will build throughout the year. Centennial events will continue throughout the year, culminating in May 1999 with a university-wide public service day.