Age 77
Inspired by her motto, “Walk while you have the light,” Sister Gaye was a beacon of hope to those in need, especially children and immigrants.
Sister Gaye first encountered the Sisters of Mercy as a volunteer at Project R.E.A.C.H., a human-service ministry for health care, poverty and migrant education in Perkinsville, New York. She entered the Sisters of Mercy at the age of 22 in Rochester, New York.
A graduate of the Air Force High School in Colorado Springs, Colorado, she earned her bachelor’s degree in English with secondary education certification from the State University of New York in Geneseo, New York. She also earned a law degree from Notre Dame University in South Bend, Indiana.
After graduating from college, Sister Gaye founded and worked at Andrews Center, a foster-care ministry that provided a loving home to children with medical, emotional, behavioral and physical needs.
While practicing law, she served as a member of the former Rochester Regional Community leadership team and later began representing immigrants in removal proceedings and juveniles in Family Court proceedings. As a child welfare lawyer, she coordinated the Mercy Migrant Education Ministry, the nation’s first mobile school for the children of migrant farm workers between Ohio and Florida. In 2004, she returned to Rochester as president of the leadership team of the former Rochester Regional Community of the Sisters of Mercy for four years.
Gaye also served as a staff attorney for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children for eight years and worked in Mission Services at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Phoenix, Arizona, for 16 years.