Sister Mary Nugent, OP 1929-2021

Sister Mary Nugent, OP
                              1929-2021
                              Among the many youngsters who experienced World War II in an up
                              close and personal way were the six children of Patrick and Margaret
                              (McKeigue) Nugent, one of whom went on to become our Sister Mary
                              Nugent.

                              Patrick and Margaret were both Irish immigrants to Chicago in the early
                              1920s, with Patrick coming from Dublin and Margaret from Galway. They
                              married in Chicago in 1926 and soon had a son, Richard, who died of
                              pneumonia at just six weeks of age. Over time, six girls followed; Mary
                              Therese, the oldest, was born on May 10, 1929.

The family moved to England in 1936 after Mary finished first grade, because Patrick, who worked for
Philco Radio, was sent there to learn from the British engineers who were developing the then-new
technology of television. Three girls were in the family at the time: Mary, Pat, and Eleanor.

What Patrick and Margaret hadn’t planned on when they and the children set off on their overseas
adventure, of course, was World War II. The family moved from England to Ireland to be near their
relatives literally just as the war broke out in 1939. The ship they were on arrived in Dublin just as
Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s announcement that war had been declared on Germany was
being broadcast over the ship’s P.A. system.

“I was ten years old,” Sister Mary wrote in her autobiography. “I didn’t realize all the implications of
those words, but I did notice that my mother, standing next to me, was crying. I don’t think I had ever
seen her cry before.”

Neither Patrick nor Margaret were U.S. citizens at the time, and the three children born in Great
Britain – Betty, Margaret, and Clare, the youngest, born in 1941 – were officially British subjects. And
so, while Mary, Pat, and Eleanor, having been born in America and therefore were American citizens,
could have returned home early in the war, Patrick did not wish to separate the family.

Despite the war, the family spent a happy year or so in Ireland, first in Dublin for a short time and then
in Galway, where Mary attended the same school as her mother had and even had the same teacher.
But the peaceful times were not to last; the Nugents returned to England in 1941 and settled in
Stockport, near Manchester.

“I expected to see soldiers fighting in the streets, but it was relatively quiet for the first few months and
the war didn’t seem so bad,” Sister Mary wrote in her autobiography. But by late 1941 Manchester
had become the target of regular German air raids, and Sister Mary recalled how her father would
keep the radio on constantly because if the station stopped broadcasting, the sirens and the German
bombers were soon to follow and everyone ran for the air raid shelter down the hill. “I can remember
hearing shrapnel hitting the sidewalk,” she wrote.

“Each evening as it started to get dark, we would hear German bombers overhead as we were
making our way into the shelter. This was the time of the ‘doodlebugs’ – Hitler’s rocket-like bombs –
which came with almost no warning.” Once, a German incendiary bomb even hit their shed, setting it
on fire.

The family later moved closer to London, and after high school graduation Mary attended the Regent
Street Polytechnic for a year and then worked as a secretary until late in 1948, when she and her
siblings and parents could finally get passage on a ship bound for America.

Back home in Chicago, she took some college courses and worked for the Illinois Central Railroad,
but it wasn’t long before she became interested in religious life thanks to Sister John Mary Hogan,
whose parents were longtime friends of the family, and other Adrian Dominican Sisters to whom
Sister John Mary introduced her. Finally, with the blessing of her parents, Mary entered the
Congregation in February 1952. She was received into the novitiate that August and given the
religious name Sister Clare Patrick.

She remained in Adrian after her canonical novitiate year, teaching and serving as secretary for St.
Joseph Academy from 1953 to 1955 while working on her bachelor’s degree in speech at Siena
Heights College (University). Given her earlier college experience, she was able to complete her
degree quickly (1954).

The Academy was to be her last experience teaching in the primary grades. From there, she taught
mainly business-related courses, English, or drama at St. Mary High School, Swanton, Ohio (1955-
1961); Sts. Peter and Paul High School, Ruth, Michigan (1961-1962); St. Lawrence High School,
Utica, Michigan (1962-1965); St. Paul High School, Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan (1965-1966);
Regina Dominican High School, Wilmette, Illinois (1966-1969) and Siena Heights College (1969-
1970). She earned her master’s degree in English from DePaul University in 1960.

After eight years (1970-1978) as principal at Rosarian Academy, Sister Mary returned to England,
first as a graduate student at the University of London for a year and then as academic dean of the
Marymount International School from 1979 to 1982. Her time there gave her the opportunity to do
something that she had not been able to during and immediately after the war: travel around Great
Britain as well as to Spain, France, Denmark, and Greece.

From England, it was back to Regina Dominican High School where she spent the years 1982 to
1988, first as academic advisor and then as director of faculty. After that time, she returned to her
early roots in secretarial work for a number of years, working at an alcohol and drug agency, a
retirement home, a high school, and in two churches, all in the Greater Chicago area. She also spent
several months in adult education ministry at St. Isaac Jogues Parish in Hinsdale, Illinois.

Sister Mary returned to Adrian in 2004 and resided at the Dominican Life Center until her death on
August 20, 2021. She was ninety-two years old and had been an Adrian Dominican Sister for sixty-
nine of those years.

Among those who shared their memories of Sister Mary for the Ritual of Remembering was Angie
Austin, who first met Sister Mary when Sister was her American Literature professor at Siena Heights.
Years later, now in what she called “the Adrian Dominican Company Business” (teaching) herself,
Angie joined the faculty at Rosarian Academy – and found a familiar face so far away.

      Imagine my joy and delight to arrive there and discover that Sr. Mary was going to be
      my principal! All these miles from my home in Michigan, it was comforting to know I
      would be working with someone familiar.

      As an administrator, Sister was highly respected by all of the faculty. She was always
      gracious and very professional. I found her to be approachable for questions or
      permissions. I never knew her to be impatient with anyone: students, staff, parents or
      teachers. She was a serene example of what a leader should be; an excellent role

model. And along with that, there was also a frequent leprechaun-like twinkle in her
      eyes!

Sister Carol Johannes preached the homily for Sister Mary’s memorial Mass held several days after
Sister Mary received a “green” burial in the Congregation cemetery. In it, she reflected on the
Scripture readings Sister Mary had chosen.

      So often, when our Sisters select the readings for their funeral liturgies, the texts they
      choose reveal a great deal about them and a great deal about God. That’s certainly the
      case today as we gather to celebrate the life of our dear sister, Mary Nugent.

      … For the first reading, Mary chose one of the tenderest and most reassuring passages
      in Isaiah. “Fear not, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by name. You are mine.

      … [I]n today’s text, there is nothing asked or expected of us excepting to let go of fear,
      trust in God’s redemptive love, accept it, and allow ourselves to be cherished as
      precious to God. What could possibly be more consoling, and how do you think Mary
      experienced her homecoming to this God? It must have been indescribably happy!

Sister Carol went on to explore the rest of the passage from Isaiah and how the writer’s description of
how God’s beloved will be protected while passing through flood and fire may be symbolic to most
people but was quite literal to Sister Mary, with her childhood experience of daily German air raids.

      [H]er life after the war surely bears witness that God protected her throughout it all. She
      must have related to this passage as none of the rest of us could. She seemed to come
      through the war both physically and emotionally unscathed, open to the rich future that
      God gave her. Those of us who lived and worked with Mary would never have known
      that she had ever suffered any hardship. Mary loved life and lived it fully as long as she
      was able. She loved travel, reading, writing, the theater, music, all the arts. She enjoyed
      and related well to her students and colleagues, and was beloved by them, by us. And
      now, she’s living in the immediate presence of her God of life and love.

Left: The Nugents at Waterloo Bridge, London: Margaret, mother, holding Betty; Patricia; Eleanor; and Mary, far right.
               Center: Sister Mary with her parents, Patrick and Margaret Nugent, February 2, 1952

                       Center: Sister Mary Alice Naour, OP, left, and Sister Mary Nugent, OP.

Left: Back row, from left, Sisters Arlene Scott, Elizabeth Kreiner, Jean Keeley, and Mary Nugent, and seated, from left,
Sisters Joanetta Bruene and Joan Mary. Right: The Nugent family, from left, sisters Clare, Betty, and Mary; their mother,
                                Margaret Nugent; and sisters Patricia, Eleanor, and Margaret

Members of the 2002 Golden Jubilee August Reception Crowd are back row, from left, Sisters Diane Odette, Norma Dell,
 Elizabeth Ross, Mary Giacopelli, and Marie Quenneville and front row, from left, Sisters Mary Nugent, Claudia Hinds,
                   Jean Horger, Mary Ann Zakrajsek, Kathleen Buechele, and Laura Marie Smith.