Connon's first term was marked by the expansion of the college and its professionalization, began under Brother Chrysostom Peter Clifford, F.S.C., who assumed the post of Dean of the College, succeeding Brother Lambert Edward Chisholm FSC, its post-war re-founder. It was also during this first period of the presidency that Brother Gabriel assumed the Directorship of the Community, the Presidency of the College, and the Auxiliary Visitorship of the Philippines in 1953, the Philippines having been raised to be a sub-district of the San Francisco Province of the Brothers.