Louis William Valentine DuBourg

President of Georgetown College

In October 1795, just several months after arriving in the United States, DuBourg was appointed by Carroll to succeed Robert Molyneux as the third president of Georgetown College. He was one of four Sulpicians to serve on the faculty during the founding era of the Jesuit college, who together had a significant influence on the school's development. DuBourg had an ambitious vision for Georgetown, seeking to make it the best college in the United States. One historian of the university credits him with transforming Georgetown from an "academy" into a "college."

Seeking to make the school more cosmopolitan, DuBourg recruited many students from Baltimore, particularly French refugees from the West Indies. He also admitted many non-Catholics. Overall, the size of the student body grew during his tenure. DuBourg solicited financial support from Catholic donors, which allowed him to sponsor sixteen students throughout his tenure to study at Georgetown in preparation for the seminary. In 1797, he sponsored one potential seminarian instead of accepting a salary increase. DuBourg hired 16 new teachers, greatly expanding the size of the college's faculty and raised the salary of professors. A significant departure from his predecessors, the significant majority of professors he hired were laymen, rather than clerics.

In keeping with his mission to make Georgetown an elite college, DuBourg improved and expanded the curriculum by adding courses in history, moral philosophy, natural philosophy, and Spanish; music, dancing, and drawing were also taught for the first time. He instituted new features, including the college's first seal and uniforms for students. He promoted the school's public image by advertising its favorable situation upon a hill and proximity to Washington, D.C., the seat of the federal government. DuBourg became active in Washington's high society, including making the acquaintance of Thomas Law, a merchant who enrolled his son at Georgetown. Through Law, DuBuissson received an invitation to dine with the former President George Washington at his home, Mount Vernon, in July 1797. The following month, Washington visited Georgetown's campus. Around this time, DuBourg also invited a group of Poor Clares who fled the revolution in France, and they founded a school for girls in the Georgetown area in 1798.

Though DuBourg's improvements elevated the college's quality, they placed Georgetown in substantial debt. Donations were inadequate to offset this debt, which was worsened by economic stagnation in Washington in the 1790s. This strained the relationship between DuBourg and the Jesuits, who were forced to sell some land in Maryland to meet the financial obligations. The trustees of the Corporation of Roman Catholic Clergymen, which owned Georgetown, elected new Jesuits to the college's board of directors and empowered the board to remove the president. In October 1797, the board decided to keep DuBourg as president, but stripped him of his power over Georgetown's finances, transferring it to a new vice president, Francis Neale, who implemented strict austerity measures. Motivated in part by anti-French sentiment, the Maryland Jesuits eventually took steps to oust DuBourg in 1798, leading to his resignation. He was succeeded by Francis Neale's brother, Leonard Neale, at Christmas.

Founding St. Mary's College

Upon leaving Georgetown, DuBourg traveled to Havana, Cuba, where he joined two other Sulpicians seeking to establish a college there. However, this project faced political opposition, and DuBourg returned to Baltimore in August 1799.

That year, DuBourg founded and became the first president of a college for lay students at St. Mary's Seminary. Though DuBourg initially intended the school to be open for general education, Bishop Carroll required that admission be limited only to West Indian students, so as not to compete with Georgetown College. As a result, many Cubans who had met DuBourg during his time in Havana sent their sons to be educated at St. Mary's College. The Jesuits opposed the founding of St. Mary's College, and DuBourg offered to resolve the dispute by closing St. Mary's College and transferring its students and faculty to Georgetown; however, the Jesuits did not act on this proposal.

In 1800, the Sulpicians lodged a protest with Carroll over the restriction on admitting only West Indian students. DuBourg travelled to Cuba in 1802 to recruit students, where he was informed by the Spanish government—which feared the education of Cubans in a republican country—that Cuban students would no longer be allowed to attend school in Baltimore. The following year, the Spanish Navy sent a frigate to Baltimore to demand that all Spanish nationals return. Carroll then lifted the restriction on enrollment, and the school began admitting students of any nationality in 1803. As a result, enrollment at St. Mary's College grew rapidly, overtaking that of Georgetown. Students arrived not only from the West Indies, but from South America, Mexico, and many parts of the United States. The new college was chartered by the State of Maryland in 1805, and was elevated to university status by the Maryland General Assembly the following year.

To accommodate the prospering school, DuBourg oversaw the construction of several new buildings. Among these was St. Mary's Seminary Chapel, referred to by Elizabeth Ann Seton as "Mr. DuBourg's chapel." DuBourg hired Maximilian Godefroy to design the chapel, who he had previously appointed to the faculty of St. Mary's. Work began in 1806, and DuBourg expedited the project by retaining Benjamin Henry Latrobe, the Architect of the Capitol, whose skilled Italian artists completed the building ini 1808.

Diocesan ministry

DuBourg ministered to and provided charity to the many refugees living in Baltimore who had fled Saint-Domingue during the Haitian Revolution. With John Tessier, he also established a congregation for the many poor Black Baltimoreans who met and celebrated Mass at St. Mary's Chapel. From this congregation eventually formed the Oblate Sisters of Providence. DuBourg also established a lay fraternal organization of parishioners that provided charity for the city.

DuBourg played an important role in the construction of Baltimore's first cathedral. Bishop Carroll desired to replace St. Peter's Pro-Cathedral with a proper cathedral, and DuBourg convinced him to move it from St. Peter's to a new location. DuBourg identified a site atop a hill, which would become known as Cathedral Hill, and negotiated with the sale with the owner of the land. He then raised the $23,000 necessary to purchase the land, equivalent to $470,000 in 2025. Construction on the cathedral began in 1806.