On May 4, 2016, a ceremony to bless the recently installed monument of Saint Thomas Aquinas will be held at Aquinas College in Michigan.  The 17′ high bronze and granite monument presides over the main entrance of the Grand Rapids campus.

NSS elected member, Jay Hall Carpenter created the Saint’s monument.  Grand Rapids is also home to Carpenter’s Helen Claytor and the Most Rev. Frederic Baraga statues.  During his 20 years as sculptor for the Washington National Cathedral, Carpenter created the original carver’s models for over 500 sculptures that adorn the gothic, limestone building. The State Department, the Smithsonian, Canterbury Cathedral, the New England Medical Center, the University of Missouri at St Louis, and the State of Maryland are just of few of the institutions that have commissioned work from Carpenter.