- Date Of Birth: June 29, 1933
- Date Of Death: August 30, 2022
- State: Indiana
Entered from Albert Lea, Minnesota on January 30, 1953
Initial profession on August 15, 1955
Mary Katheryn Brooks was born to parents William James Brooks and Katheryn McDonough Brooks on June 29, 1933, in Des Moines, Iowa. While she was young, the family which included her older brother, William, moved to Albert Lea, Minnesota, where her father was a railroad engineer. Here she attended Saint Theodore Grade School and Albert Lea High School, graduating in 1951. During these years she engaged frequently in horseback riding at nearby horse farms. She also took lessons and enjoyed playing the piano. After completing high school, she enrolled in a nursing education program at Saint Mary’s School of Nursing in Rochester, Minnesota, sponsored by the Franciscan Sisters of Rochester, Minnesota. Here, Mary met Sister Agnes Anne (Roberts), CSC, who was an intern at the hospital. As Mary began to consider a religious vocation for the first time, she followed Sister Agnes Anne’s suggestion that she visit the motherhouse of the Congregation to meet other Holy Cross sisters and to find out more about the order. Her visit to Saint Mary’s, Note Dame, Indiana determined her decision to enter the Congregation in 1953. She made her initial profession of vows on August 15, 1955, receiving the religious name Sister William Mary. She returned to her baptismal name in 1968 when the option became available and later dropped Katheryn from her name.
Sister Mary completed her nursing education and became a registered nurse in 1958 and earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing in 1960 from Saint Mary’s College, Notre Dame, Indiana. The first years of her ministry until 1965 found her serving as a nurse in Indiana at Saint John’s Hospital in Anderson, Saint Joseph’s Hospital in South Bend, and Saint Mary’s Convent, Notre Dame. For the next two years she studied at Saint Louis University in Saint Louis, Missouri, earning a master’s degree in hospital administration in 1967. She was then appointed to be chief executive officer of Holy Cross Hospital, Jacksonville, Illinois. She was asked to coordinate the merger of the hospital with Passavant Memorial Area Hospital, also located in Jacksonville. With the completion of the merger in July 1968, she was named assistant administrator of Holy Cross Hospital in Mission Hills, California. One year later she took the position of chief executive officer at Saint John’s Hospital in Anderson, Indiana, where she served until 1978. In 2007, a gift of $40,000 was made to the hospital in her honor by Robert and Charlotte Austin. Robert, a former board chair of St. John’s, said of Sister Mary: “I was always impressed with her kindness and ability to guide people through the decisions and changes that needed to be made.”
Sister Mary was a person of many interests. These included traveling, taking photographs, visiting family and friends, playing computer games, and watching sports, especially Notre Dame football. She wrote many letters descriptive of her life and ministries. Within the local communities she belonged, she was an engaged member.
Sister Mary had resigned from Saint John’s Hospital to be a part of the beginning of the Holy Cross Health System Corporation in 1978. The corporation was established for the coordination and direction of the Congregation’s hospitals throughout the United States. As Vice President for Apostolic Effectiveness, Sister Mary developed programs for ministry tailored to the needs of the various hospitals. Early in 1980, she took a leave of absence to volunteer to serve Cambodian refugees in Thailand. She was a member of the second group of Holy Cross sisters to give a three-month period of service under the leadership of Catholic Relief Services. As medical director, she traveled from Bangkok, Thailand to the refugee camps to assess the needs of the people and coordinate the delivery of medical services and supplies. She said that the extreme poverty of the people and the brutality she witnessed became a life-long learning experience for her. After her return to the Holy Cross Health System, she took on the position of interim CEO for the remainder of 1980 during the search for a new CEO. She continued as Vice President for Apostolic Effectiveness until September 1982.
Recognizing the need for an assessment of her future ministry service, she requested sabbatical leave and spent a year at Regis College in Toronto, Canada. The program provided her with an update in Scripture, spirituality, and theology and training in spiritual direction. Convinced of her desire to minister closely with people in the field of spirituality, she requested and received permission to pursue a master’s degree in theological studies with a concentration in spirituality from the Weston School of Theology, Cambridge, Massachusetts. After earning this degree in 1987, she served a year as Director of Continuing Education at the House of Affirmation Center, Natick, Massachusetts, where she prepared others for work in ministry. Then she moved to Notre Dame, Indiana to serve as the director of Mary’s Solitude Prayer Center. In this capacity she developed and conducted spiritual renewal programs for individuals and groups, as well as engaging in spiritual counseling. Three years later in 1992, she left to assume the position of Associate Director of the Office of Spiritual Development, Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, located in South Bend. This ministry involved working with diocesan parishes providing programs and support in spirituality. Sister Mary held this position for sixteen years, resigning in 2008 in response to a need of the Congregation. For the last five years of her public ministry, she served as Director of Mission Services for the Sisters of the Holy Cross Corporation at Saint Mary’s, Notre Dame, Indiana. She worked with employees to educate and instill within them an understanding of and adherence to the mission and core values of the Sisters of the Holy Cross. Sister Mary was also a member of the Angela Area Council of the Congregation from 2005-2009. Since retirement at the end of 2013, she had devoted herself to the ministry of prayer at Saint Mary’s, Notre Dame, Indiana. Now she enjoys resurrected life with her Creator.
Written by Sister Grace Shonk
