Age 84
Sister Pat met the Sisters of Mercy in high school at Red Bank Catholic in Red Bank, New Jersey, and was inspired by, their mission and charism. By the end of her senior year, she decided to join and entered the community on September 8, 1957.
She earned her bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Georgian Court College, now University, and taught in elementary schools in Bordentown, Phillipsburg, East Keansburg, Alpha and Metuchen, New Jersey.
During her time in Metuchen, she served as assistant program director on the Parish Social Concerns Committee. Their mission was based on the belief that Christian unity should be the concern of everyone. Sister Pat readily adopted that mandate.
From that time forward, her focus was inclusion. She ministered as a social concerns director at St. Francis Parish in Metuchen and Sacred Heart Parish in South Plainfield; New Jersey. Sister Pat also served as a pastoral associate in Bradley Beach, New Jersey, and a counselor at Mount Carmel Guild in Jersey City, New Jersey. In the 1990’s she was a retreat and spiritual director at the Institute for Psychological Growth in Hazlet, New Jersey, and a social worker with Catholic Charities in Metuchen and Red Bank. Her last position was on the professional staff at Aberdeen Counseling Center in Aberdeen, New Jersey.
Though no longer active in ministry, Sister Pat continued to pray for all those in need, exemplifying the motto in her ring: Always To Please Thee, Jesus.