Sister Alma Marie Messing, OP 1926-2021

Sister Alma Marie Messing, OP
                             1926-2021
                             During her four years as a student at Dominican High School in Detroit,
                             Carolyn Mary Ann Messing, the future Sister Alma Marie, enjoyed all
                             sorts of academic subjects, including math and Latin, but was not at all
                             fond of science. What makes that fact especially ironic is that she went
                             on to earn her graduate degree in science, teach the sciences, and help
                             set up school science programs throughout her time in elementary and
                             secondary education, and work at the Museum of Science and Industry
                             in Chicago.

                            Carolyn was born on May 25, 1926, in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, to Frank
and Alma (Treppa) Messing. She was the first of three children born to the couple; one brother,
Frank, was born three years later, and her other brother, Don, joined the family in 1939.

The siblings had a happy childhood, often riding their bikes to see their grandparents and as a family
visiting each set of grandparents regularly. In her life story, Sister Alma Marie recalled how her
Grandmother Messing loved to cook and how the family would gather at the Treppa home for spirited
games of Monopoly followed by midnight snacks. Her family and her maternal grandparents also
traveled to many exciting places, such as New York City where, she wrote, the best part of the trip for
her was seeing the Planter’s Peanut man.

The family lived in St. Clare of Montefalco Parish and the children all received their elementary
schooling from the Dominican Sisters of Columbus, Ohio, who taught at the parish school. When
Carolyn reached high school age, she chose the then-new Dominican High School, becoming part of
its charter class in 1940, and it was there that she met the Adrian Dominican Sisters.

In addition to enjoying math and Latin (but not science), she was very active in verse choir and drama
club during high school, and was the youngest member of the Catholic Theater of Detroit. Among the
highlights of her theatrical experiences were getting to perform in plays staged by the University of
Detroit and having a play she wrote accepted by Detroit radio station WXYZ.

By the time she graduated from Dominican High (as the class valedictorian), she knew she wanted to
enter the Congregation. She wrote in her life story that it was not because she especially felt called to
religious life as such; rather, she had been inspired by the Sisters she had met and impressed by
their works, and wanted to be a part of those works.

While her parents were generally supportive of her decision, they wanted to make sure she was not
making the choice out of unhappiness. She assured them she was not, and on June 25, 1944, her
parents, with little Don in tow, brought her to Adrian.

According to her life story, when it was time for the family to leave, the hardest parting of all was
saying good-bye to Don, who had just turned six years old. Don himself shared his memory of that
day in a remembrance sent to Adrian after Sister Alma Marie’s death:

       After getting to Adrian and playing for several hours, my mother said, “OK, Don, it’s time
       to go home.” … I turned to Sister and said, “aren’t you coming home, why are you
       staying here, what is going on? I want you to come with us, all of us, Mom, Dad,
       Carolyn and me!” I kept repeating those same things … until eventually all of us were
       crying. … As a six-year-old, it was not easy to understand.

Sister Alma Marie completed her postulancy and became a novice in January 1945, receiving the
religious name she had asked for in honor of her mother. When her canonical novitiate year was
complete in January 1946, she was assigned to remain in Adrian to study at Siena Heights College
(University), but a few weeks later was sent to St. Joseph, Michigan, to temporarily replace a Sister
who taught science. She was still required to keep up her college coursework, however, and
completed her bachelor’s degree in mixed sciences later in 1946.

She was then sent to study at the Institutum Divi Thomae in Cincinnati, Ohio, and spent the next
three years there, earning her master’s degree in mixed sciences in 1949. From that point on, almost
all her teaching came at the high school and college level, and all in science.

Over the next twenty years, Sister Alma Marie taught at St. Ann High School (1949-1950) and then
Rosarian Academy (1950-1956), both in West Palm Beach, Florida; St. Joseph Academy in Adrian
(1956-1958); Central Catholic High School, Fort Lauderdale, Florida (1958-1959); Barry College
(University), Miami Shores, Florida (1959-1963); Aquinas College, Nassau, Bahamas (1963-January
1965); St. Lawrence High School, Utica, Michigan (January-June 1965); Dominican High School, her
alma mater (1965-1967); Regina Dominican High School, Wilmette, Illinois (1967-1968); and Bishop
Muldoon High School, Rockford, Illinois (1968-1970).

With the exception of her four-year tenure at Barry College, her time at all these places was short
mostly because her task was to help the schools get their science programs set up. “Although the
moving was sometimes tedious, the opportunity to meet, work and live with so many members of the
Congregation was a priceless experience for which I am grateful,” she wrote in her life story.

They were also years filled with great experiences, including a trip around the world in 1967, arranged
by her parents, that she took with Sister Paul James Villemure. Getting to travel through twenty-three
countries “was the most educational endeavor I have ever experienced,” she wrote.

Her time at Barry coincided with Fidel Castro’s expulsion of professionals from Cuba, many of whom
were assisted in their adjustment to the U.S. by members of the Barry faculty, including Sister Mary
Kenneth Duwelius. She also had the experience during those years of spending her summers in the
Washington, D.C., area, doing cancer research at the National Institutes of Health.

With the closure of Muldoon High School in 1970, Sister Alma Marie found herself on the move again.
She enrolled at the University of Chicago for full-time study toward her Ph.D. in curriculum, and spent
three years there until being sent to Siena Heights to teach math and science for the 1973-1974
school year.

When she returned to the University of Chicago planning to finish her doctorate, she got a job at the
Museum of Science and Industry in order to fund her studies, and worked there in one capacity or
another for the rest of her life in active ministry with the exception of several months in 1977 that she
spent in Detroit caring for her mother until her mother’s death. Her father had died just two years
earlier in 1975. In addition to her work at the museum, she taught science in two Chicago schools,
Gate of Heaven in 1978-1979 and St. Ailbe from 1979-1983.

In all, she was at the museum for twenty-five years as a lecturer, Elderhostel coordinator, researcher
and more. She also assisted in the museum’s NASA Resource Center and got to meet many of the
people who were part of the space program at that time. Her connection to NASA continued after
retirement, as for many years she presented workshops on the space program at the Johnson Space
Center in Houston for teachers and at various schools.

Sister Alma Marie remained in Chicago until 2018, when she returned to Adrian to live. Retirement,
whether in Chicago or Adrian, allowed her to devote more time to the crafting she had done for much
of her life, whether it was knitting, embroidery, gourd art, or even something more unusual.

Pat Daly, president of the Dominican Institute for the Arts, in a remembrance of Sister Alma Marie,
told of Sister’s expertise in the ancient art of quilling and how one of her pieces had made it to the
Dominican Sisters International in Rome after the DSI asked for depictions of the Visitation. After that,
Sister was invited to join the Institute, and “I am very happy to have known, from long distance, this
gracious, sweet and delightful member of our DIA family,” Pat wrote.

Sister Alma Marie died in Adrian on May 20, 2021, just five days short of her ninety-fifth birthday. She
was in her seventy-sixth year of profession as an Adrian Dominican Sister.

In addition to her brother Don and Pat Daly, many members of her family and several of her Adrian
Dominican Sisters sent in their memories of Sister Alma Marie. Her brother Frank’s family recalled
that in their younger years Sister still wore the full habit, and when she switched to secular clothing
“we were all surprised to learn that Sister had hair.”

Sister Joyce Caulfield wrote of how much she and her twin great-nieces treasured the origami hearts
Sister Alma Marie made for them out of dollar bills, and of how much Sister Alma Marie delighted
sharing her creations with the Sisters at the Dominican Life Center. “Because of Alma’s love for what
she did, many felt an emotional connection to her and her works of art,” Sister Joyce wrote.

Sister Jamie Phelps preached Sister Alma Marie’s funeral homily.

       Sister Alma shared her gifts with whomever she encountered. Alma’s life story makes it
       clear that she understood and embodied God’s love as recorded in our first reading [1
       Corinthians 12:31-13:7]… She examined all things through her scientific eye and
       ultimately believed in the goodness of all persons and all things. She hoped in all things,
       endured all things in her broad and loving heart.

       … Even in “retirement” she continued to testify to God’s universal, unconditional love
       and continued to preach by her loving embrace of her sisters living with her at the
       Dominican Life Center.

       … Alma, we will miss your presence but will not forget your grace-filled earthly journey
       and witness of God’s love.

Left: Sister Alma Marie with her cousin Harold

Left: Graduate of Dominican High School, Detroit. Right: Sister Alma Marie and Bridget

Left: Sister Alma Marie, left, celebrates her Golden Jubilee with her Chapter Prioress, Sister Joella Miller, OP, May 1995.
       Right: Sister Alma Marie with her family, from left, parents Frank and Alma and brothers Donald and Frank III

 Left: Standing, from left, Sisters Catherine Riegel, Dolores LaVoy, and Marilyn Brown and seated, from left, Sisters
Patricia O’Reilly, Alma Marie Messing, and Irene LeDuc. Right: Sister Alma Marie, right, poses with teacher and former
                                          NASA astronaut Barbara R. Morgan.

Right: Members of the Double Diamond (70-year) 2014 Jubilee Crowd are: back row, from left, Sisters Jean Annette
Rudolph, Mary Ellen Brodeur, Patricia O’Reilly, and Attracta Kelly (Prioress); middle row, from left, Sisters Alma Marie
 Messing, Barbara Gass, Mary J. Beaubien, Helen Walsh, and Barbara Hengesbach; and front row, from left, Sisters
             Dolores LaVoy, Margaret Mary McGill, Ruth Rabideau, and Francis Elizabeth McDonnell.