Whether it was meeting with presidents and prime ministers, traveling to Cape Verde, or leading Bridgewater State University into the future as the University’s president, Dana Mohler-Faria never forgot where he came from.

That’s why, at a gathering of colleagues, family and friends – all people who drew great inspiration from him – the Onset native was named the Cape Verdean Man of the Year by the Oak Grove Cape Verdean Cultural Center on Friday night.

“I can remember a moment having breakfast with Barack Obama and Deval Patrick, and sitting there and thinking of this community,” Mohler-Faria said. “Onset was always with me.”

The event, which took place at the Onset VFW, included a series of speakers from Mohler-Faria’s personal and professional life.

First to speak was Oak Grove Cape Verdean Cultural Center member Charles Andrade, who spoke about how Dana grew up the youngest of three children and was the first member of his family to go to college. After spending time in the Air Force, Mohler-Faria earned his associate's, bachelor's and master's degrees, before spending more than two decades in higher education. For the last 13 years, he was the president of Bridgewater State University, overseeing tremendous expansion of the University before retiring on June 30.

“I’m thrilled to be here to celebrate a friend and a colleague for 20 years,” said Miguel Gomes, vice president of administration and finance at Bridgewater and also a Wareham native.

Gomes spoke about Mohler-Faria’s work ethic and how it permeated through the school’s administration.

“No one has accomplished what he has accomplished at BSU,” Gomes said, noting that Mohler-Faria was the first Cape Verdean to head a four-year institution in Massachusetts and the second in the entire United States.

Vanessa Britto, a former member of the Bridgewater State Board of Trustees and another Wareham native, said that coming from the community, she knew Mohler-Faria’s story and drew inspiration from him, as did countless others in Onset.

“We are and will always be better because of you,” she said.

One of Mohler-Faria’s biggest accomplishments as president was helping establish the first institution of higher learning in Cape Verde.

Gomes said that when the prime minister of Cape Verde visited Bridgewater in 2004, Mohler-Faria asked him what he could do to help his people. The prime minister responded by saying that he wanted to establish the first public university in Cape Verde.

Three years later the University was established, with Mohler-Faria's help, and now has an enrollment of more than 5,000 students.

“It isn’t just what he’s done for individuals, but for an entire country,” Gomes said.

When Mohler-Faria spoke after accepting his award, he spoke about his time as a boy in Onset, speaking with his grandfather and the other elders about the people of Cape Verde. He remembered the pain in his grandfather’s eyes when he he sent supplies back to Cape Verde and thought about the struggle of his people.

“They came here with hopes of a better life but never cut their ties,” Mohler-Faria said.

Mohler-Faria said he has his grandfather’s citizen’s papers hanging in his home office.

“When I came back from Cape Verde with the medal of merit, I hung it on my grandfather’s citizens papers,” he said. “Because it didn’t belong to me. It belonged to him.”