From Shirley Murphy
Division 11

Sr. Sarah Marie Healy passed away on Tuesday, September 16.
Our Division 11 will meet at Carlow tonight, Thursday, Sept. 18, at 7 p.m. for our prayer service.

Sister Sara Marie Healy : Nurse, educator and administrator at Carlow
Nov. 5, 1908 - Sept. 16, 2008
Thursday, September 18, 2008

By Gary Rotstein, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

In the course of a century, Sister Sara Marie Healy flew airplanes, assisted in groundbreaking work with polio patients, led the city's big St. Patrick Day's Parade and had any number of memorable experiences.

But primarily, Sister Sara Marie mentored and motivated young people and represented some of the city's notable institutions with an infectious zeal. She was a top official at Carlow University into her 90s, with an ever-young spirit that still generated goodwill among benefactors, alumni, students and others.

The longtime Sister of Mercy died Tuesday at the Mercy Hall of the order's motherhouse on the Carlow campus in Oakland. She was 99. Health troubles began for her in 2001, when she concluded 18 years as special assistant to two different Carlow presidents, Sister Marylouise Fennell and Sister Grace Ann Geibel.

That role as university ambassador capped a career as a schoolteacher, nurse, nursing administrator and nursing educator. After entering the Sisters of Mercy from the North Side's St. Peter Parish in 1933, she held a range of supervisory positions at St. Paul's Orphanage in Crafton, at Mercy Hospital and at Carlow University and its predecessors, Mount Mercy College and Carlow College.

Sister Sara Marie was most closely tied to Carlow, where she obtained an education degree and in various stints since the 1950s taught nursing, ran the student health center and represented the two presidents. Known as "Aunt Sal" to many on campus, she delighted in spending time with younger generations, which led to many years spent living in a student dormitory instead of the convent used by her peers.

"I remember the students would always confide in her, and that takes a special quality," said Sister Grace Ann.

Before working with college students, Sister Sara Marie devoted her career to caring for young children. She worked alongside Dr. Jonas Salk in the 1950s as a nurse at the Municipal Hospital for Infectious Diseases in Oakland when he was developing the polio vaccine.

She became the nursing supervisor of pediatrics at Mercy Hospital in the late 1950s, where Sister Mary Louise Nash worked under her as a student nurse.

"She demanded much from students, but also gave much to students," Sister Mary Louise said. "She wasn't the kind of supervisor that kept in her office at all. She would move through all the wards and nurseries faster than you could track her."

An adventuresome spirit was exemplified by her obtaining a pilot's license as a young woman. She became an aviation instructor to prospective Army pilots in Latrobe during World War II. Life was a constant education for her, as she accumulated master's degrees in nursing, nursing education and counseling.

Decades spent networking with so many people in Pittsburgh's health and academic fields, as well as in active Irish heritage organizations such as the Ancient Order of Hibernians, made her perfect to start her special role at Carlow in 1983 even though she was already in her mid-70s.
Sister Sara Marie excelled at remembering names and relationships and keeping track of them through notes and phone calls, both because she enjoyed it and because it was good for the university.

Already honored as a Carlow Woman of Spirit in 1994, she enjoyed a greater day in the limelight in 1996, waving giddily from a convertible as the first female grand marshal of Pittsburgh's St. Patrick's Day Parade. The next year, Mayor Tom Murphy honored her as Pittsburgh's "Senior Citizen of the Year." Fun-loving by nature, she did not shy away from the attention, but she also put in all the necessary effort to deserve it.

"I've never had an unhappy day," Sister Sara Marie said in a 1994 interview about her life's work. "I've had hard days. I've burned the midnight oil. But I've never had a really unhappy day."

She is survived by one sister, Catherine Healy, of the North Hills.

Friends will be received from 1 to 8 p.m. today (Thursday, Sept. 18) at the Convent of Mercy, 3333 Fifth Ave., Oakland. A Mass will be celebrated at noon tomorrow (Sept. 19) in the convent chapel, followed by burial in St. Xavier's Cemetery, Latrobe.

Funeral arrangements are by the Edward Kanai Funeral Home, Greenfield.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Sisters of Mercy or to the Carlow University Scholarship Fund, both at 3333 Fifth Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15213.