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March
6, 2006
VOL.
44, NO. 5Oakland,
CA
OBITUARIES
Sister
Mary Wilma King, SND
Notre Dame de Namur Sister Mary Wilma King, who taught off and on at Notre
Dame High School in Alameda between 1942 and 1964, died Feb. 19 at Mercy
Retirement and Care Center in Oakland. She was 97 years old and had celebrated
her 80th anniversary as a religious this past year.
Sister King was born in Vallejo, and after joining the community, taught
in elementary and secondary schools in both Washington and California,
serving as supervisor of Notre Dame secondary schools and as registrar,
librarian and teacher at the College of Notre Dame in Belmont, now known
as Notre Dame de Namur University.
She was a devoted teacher all her life, according to her younger sister,
Notre Dame Sister Ann Maureen King. In the classroom she made history
come alive “in the most personal and exciting way,” said former
student Jeanne Haller Condren. Even after her retirement to Mercy Retirement
and Care Center in 2001, she continued to teach English to seminarians
who needed to learn the language.
A memorial Mass was celebrated at Notre Dame Province Center in Belmont
on Feb. 25. Memorial contributions may be made to the Sisters of Notre
Dame de Namur, 1520 Ralston Ave., Belmont, CA 94002.
Sister Celestine Mary O’Brien,
SNJM
Holy Names Sister Celestine Mary O’Brien, a former principal at
St. Francis de Sales School in Oakland, died Jan. 12 in Los Gatos following
a lengthy illness. She was 82 years of age and had been a religious for
61 years.
A native of Los Angeles, Sister O’Brien spent her life as a teacher
and administrator in elementary schools in California. She served as principal
at St. Francis de Sales School from 1962 to 1965. She was also principal
at St. Anne School in Santa Monica, but she spent most of her teaching
career in inner city schools.
Students in these schools “were dear to her heart and she did all
she could to give them the tools needed to make it in the world they would
be facing,” said Holy Names Sister Barbara Carroll who works at
the community’s provincial office in Los Gatos.
Survivors include her two sisters, Sister Mary O’Brien and Margaret
Zapf.
Emeritus Bishop John Cummins presided at the funeral Mass held Jan. 20
in Los Gatos. Burial followed on Jan. 23 at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in
Hayward.
Memorial gifts may be made to the Ministry Fund, Sisters of the Holy Names,
P.O. Box 907, Los Gatos, CA 95031.
Sister M. Bernice Sherlock,
O.P.
Sister M. Bernice Sherlock, who had been a Mission San Jose Dominican
for 78 years, died at her community motherhouse in Fremont on Dec. 12.
The 96-year-old nun was a former teacher at two schools in the Oakland
Diocese.
Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Sister Sherlock devoted her life to education.
She taught at the School of the Madeleine in Berkeley from 1946-47 and
1953, and at St. Elizabeth High School in Oakland from 1953-54. Her teaching
ministry also took her to schools in Los Angeles, Anaheim, San Francisco,
La Canada/Flintridge, and Santa Barbara. She served as a principal in
Portland, Oregon. She also was supervisor of the art program for Dominican
Sisters’ schools for several years.
Survivors include her brother, Donald Sherlock, and her sister, Rita Harth,
and other relatives and many friends.
The funeral Mass took place Feb. 15 at the Dominican Sisters Chapel in
Fremont. Burial was in the Dominican Sisters Cemetery on Feb. 16.
Memorial gifts may be made to the Dominican Sisters Retirement Fund or
the Mother Pia Backes Education Fund, 43326 Mission Blvd., Fremont, CA
94539 or the Vision of Hope Fund, 1555 – 34th Ave., Oakland, CA
94601.
