VIA VERITATIS AWARD

LOIS QUINN

Via Veritatis, which means "way of truth," comes from the college's motto, Viam Veritatis Elegi - "I have chosen the way of truth."

Lois worked for 32 years as a probation officer, retiring in 1979 as assistant chief of probation for Berkshire County.

Lois majored in French at the Elms with the intention of teaching. But her uncle, a district court judge in Berkshire County, persuaded her to assist with cases in the county's Probation Office. Lois became the first female probation officer in Berkshire County and the youngest woman in the court system.

Because of her lifelong concern for the well-being of children, Lois also served on the board of many youth-related organizations, including serving as a founding member of Downey Side, a national non-profit organization devoted exclusively to the recruitment of adoptive families for children aged 7 to 17 waiting in the foster care system.

Lois was married to her late husband, John H. Quinn, for 61 years, and is the mother of five children and grandmother of six.

Lois has been an active member of St. Patrick Church community in Williamstown, serving as a Eucharistic minister, a member of the Third Order of Carmelites, in her parish's Hours of Eucharistic Adoration.

In 1970, she was named "Mother of the Year" by the North Adams Transcript. The article, entitled "Mother of Five, and Mom to Many," described her compassionate care of hundreds of juvenile offenders, to whom she ministered, guided, and lifted toward a better life.