Jubilarians

Senior Jubilarians

Our Senior Jubilarians celebrate milestones as Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary for 80, 75, 70 and 60 years from First Profession.

2024 Senior Jubilarians

60 Years

Barbara A. Bray, SNJM

Barbara was born in San Francisco, the oldest of six children of Ira and Alice Bray. She continues to cherish the love and support of her two sisters and brother and their families.

Barbara attended St. Cecilia’s Elementary School where she was influenced by the goodness, inspiration, and example of the Sisters of the Holy Names. In 1961, she entered the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Names in Los Gatos. Barbara’s ministries included teaching in elementary schools, mostly in junior high grades, and administrating as Principal at St. Bede’s Elementary School, Hayward, and at St. Theresa’s Elementary School, Oakland. She served in the Diocese of Oakland as an Assistant Superintendent and as Superintendent of Catholic Schools and currently serves as volunteer coach for teacher leaders.

Barbara’s ministry in Catholic Education is rooted in the vision, charism, and mission of her SNJM Community, and is shared by her many colleagues and friends who, in turn, have brought joy and blessings to her life and service.

Mary Breiling, SNJM

Sister Mary Breiling began her SNJM ministry teaching adolescents in Portland, Coos Bay and Medford, Oregon. She found they were challenging, energizing and fun. She treasures this time for the gifts shared by the young people, grateful for their playfulness, sense of humor and wit.

Mary was invited to serve as principal at Immaculate Heart School, a K-8 grade inner-city school in Portland. She found this to be the most difficult and rewarding experience of her teaching career. She learned so much from the students, their families, staff and volunteers in this African American community. It deepened her understanding of poverty, violence, and unjust systems that fail to provide equal opportunities for all to achieve the American dream. She was inspired by people so dedicated to building their community.

Following this ministry, Mary served for 14 years as a member of the Sisters’ Leadership Teams. Here she brought her prophetic vision and financial acumen to the SNJM community.

Recognizing the critical need for senior housing and inspired by the vision and values of the Sisters of the Holy Names, Mary joined with others to create and bring to life Mary’s Woods at Marylhurst. This welcoming, energetic, spirit-filled continuing care community opened its doors in February 2021.

Mary lives in Oregon City where she’s focusing her energy in social justice advocacy, with a particular interest in the care of the earth and the people on it.

Sally Brown, SNJM

As one of nine children, Sister Sally Brown cheerfully notes that this is where she developed a passion for fun and laughter and the dynamics that can only come from family. She acknowledges it as a vitally important preparation for her future ministry as an educator.

After entering, Sally taught in SNJM schools in Medford and Eugene, Oregon. Earning a master’s in religious studies, she moved to Portland, teaching for two years and then serving as principal for 13 years. During this time, she completed an MA in Counseling Psychology and went on to be a school counselor in the Oregon City Public School District.

Embracing the charism of the Holy Names Sisters, and with gratitude for the gift of her own education and a wealth of professional experiences, she focused her energies on at-risk and disenfranchised students, especially those from difficult homes. In being an educator, her love was working with children and helping them discover their own personal gifts.

Now retired, Sally, who lives in Milwaukie, Oregon, enjoys time with family and friends and serves as part of the Oregon Associate Coordinating Committee walking with SNJM Associates in the spirit of Blessed Marie-Rose Durocher and the SNJM mission.

Anne Burgard, SNJM

Cynthia Canning, SNJM

Cynthia is the oldest of four daughters born to Marie O’Sullivan and Lawrence Canning. She is the proud older sister of Marcia (RIP), Mary, and Claire – all amazing women!

As a student at Holy Names High School, she was impressed with the Sisters there – their interest in and kindness to the students, and the happy spirit they seemed to have among them as a community. She entered the Sisters of the Holy Names after graduation, along with Maureen Delaney, Mary Margaret Mulgrew, and several other HNHS classmates.

Her first years in teaching were in elementary school, where she taught not one, but two grades in the same classroom: fifth and sixth, first at St. Joseph in San Francisco and then at St. Mary’s in Oakland. Later, after twelve years teaching English in high school at Ramona and Holy Names High School, she served as principal at Holy Names for two years – a position she loved.

The next twelve years were spent in Province leadership, six as Director of Ministry and six as Provincial. These were wonderful years, filled with opportunities to come to know individual Sisters better, to see their wonderful ministries firsthand, and to work with talented and compassionate team members.

In 1994, along with Sisters Rosemary Delaney and Margaret Kennedy, she was a co-founder of Next Step Learning Center, a community-based nonprofit in Oakland with a mission of education and opportunity for Oakland families. For over twenty years she had the privilege of serving as Co-Director, working with dedicated staff and volunteers and with the courageous and determined Oakland youth and adults who came to Next Step, hoping to earn their GED or high school diploma and build better lives.

Most recently, and another highlight of her life over the past eight years, has been the privilege of serving as Chair of the Corporate Members and helping to develop the new Vatican-approved entity, Holy Names Educational Ministries (HNEM) that will ensure the future sponsorship of our beloved educational ministries. In this capacity she has worked alongside and come to know and admire people of great integrity, generosity, vision, and commitment to the SNJM mission and its importance in our world.

Carolyn Coleman, SNJM

After graduating from Sacred Heart Academy, Salem, Oregon, Sister Carolyn Coleman joined the Sisters of the Holy Names at Marylhurst. She spent her early years as an elementary school teacher in Astoria, Salem and Eugene in Oregon. This was followed by several years in community service working in the Sisters’ Care Center and by driving for the Sisters as well as assisting at Immaculate Heart and Holy Redeemer Grade Schools in Portland.

After spending a year at the Provincial House in Los Gatos, California, Carolyn returned to Oregon where she was asked to be the groundskeeper at the Marylhurst Provincial House. This proved to be the perfect fit for Carolyn, blending her needs to be creative and to be physically active. Later when the retirement community of Mary’s Woods came to be, she worked for a few years with the groundskeeping department before retiring to… guess what… gardening.

Over the years, Carolyn designed and created the garden grove at Marylhurst, known as Heartwood Park, which she continues to maintain, offering a quiet space to enjoy the wonders of nature or have a pleasant picnic lunch.

Maureen Delaney, SNJM

Sister Maureen Delaney grew up in Alameda, CA and attended Holy Names High School in Oakland. She entered the convent from Holy Names High School in 1961. As a missionary novice, she went out to St. Augustine’s School in Oakland and enjoyed teaching the second grade. She later taught primary grades at Our Lady of Lourdes, Old Saint Mary’s and St. Francis de Sales schools all in Oakland, CA.

After teaching elementary school for several years, she became interested in community organizing. Fathers John Bauman and Jerry Helfrich came to talk to St. Mary’s school staff and parish leaders about a community organizing project they were starting in East Oakland around Saint Elizabeth’s Parish. At the end of the talk, Fr. John Baumann asked if anyone was interested in learning more about community organizing and all it entailed. Here’s where Maureen said, “Count me in!”

She participated in the first 7-week Summer Institute that Frs. John and Jerry held and every summer institute for the next 10 years. There she learned how to work with the community to develop leadership among the people, to have local men and women name issues that would improve their neighborhoods, and to work behind the scenes in a supportive role so that people directly affected could speak up for themselves. She learned how to build people power and to form a strong community organization.

At this time, Maureen was assigned to St. Francis de Sales School to teach third grade. The pastor and parish council decided to hire a Community Organizer to work in the neighborhoods around St. Francis. In conversation with Sr. Elizabeth Davis, her community leadership member in the California province, Maureen applied for the job and was hired.

In March 1975, Father Don Osuna was appointed rector of St. Francis de Sales Cathedral. She was privileged to be part of the very supportive and innovative staff of priests, Sisters, and lay people during the “Osuna years” at the Cathedral. Maureen learned the importance of ritual, lay leadership and community building, which would lead to outreach in the neighborhoods in Oakland. “This experience at the cathedral as well as my organizing experience, gave me the necessary credentials, skills and background to be part of the ministry in Tutwiler, Mississippi,” commented Maureen.

As a delegate from California, Maureen attended the 1986 General Chapter in Canada. There she met SNJM Sisters from the New York Province who told her about Anne Brooks, a Doctor and Holy Names Sister who was ministering in Mississippi. Sister Anne was looking for someone to start the outreach part of the Tutwiler Clinic. At this point, Maureen had been at St. Francis for 11 years and thought it was a good time to move on. During a 10-day visit to Mississippi in 1987, she found the people to be friendly, welcoming, and became very aware of the many needs in the area.

When Maureen returned to the Mississippi Delta, she started out by talking to people to find out what they wanted to have happen. She used her transition skills as a Community Organizer and as a staff person at St. Francis de Sales, to teach people to speak up for themselves, build community, and use their own rituals from the African American culture of the Mississippi Delta. Maureen was Foundress and Executive Director of the Tutwiler Community Education Center for almost 25 years. She says, “It was a privilege to work for and with the people of the Mississippi Delta area to help bring educational, recreational and enriching activities into the lives of children, teens and adults.”

Since 2016, Maureen has been a member of the SNJM U.S.-Ontario Province Leadership Team and holds the title of Provincial.
“My only brother, Bill, was a Precious Blood Priest who passed away in July 2023. My only sister, Rosemary, is a Holy Names Sister who served as co-director of the Next Step Learning Center in Oakland, CA for over 20 years. We are family with lots of great cousins and good friends!”

Catherine Ferguson, SNJM

Sister Catherine Ferguson entered with 37 other women the year she graduated from Forest Ridge Convent in Seattle, Washington in 1961. In her 60 years as a Sister of the Holy Names, she was a high school teacher in Washington and Oregon, in leadership at the Province and Congregational level, an Associate Director of a poverty law firm in Los Angeles, an intern at Pax Christi International headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, the coordinator of a collaborative SNJM ministry, UNANIMA International and did advocacy work at the United Nations.

Somewhere in the middle of all those different roles she pursued her doctoral studies in International Studies at the University of Denver. During that time researching for her dissertation, she was privileged to accompany members of Christian base communities in Santiago, Lima and Mexico City – learning Spanish with four different accents.

Catherine now lives retired in Spokane, Washington, serves on two non-profit boards, NETWORK, a Catholic Social Justice Lobby and The Fig Tree, a local ecumenical newspaper. For fun, she trains her dog Allegro the beagle in scent work, rally and together they visit people in hospitals and nursing homes through the Pet Partners program.

Lolita Krebsbach, SNJM

Lolita, the second child of Raymond and Lucille Krebsbach, was born in Berkeley, California, and lived in Richmond with her loving parents, four sisters and one brother until she was nine. After moving to San Rafael, she began her Catholic school education at St. Raphael, and continued it at Marin Catholic High School where she met the SNJMs. Upon graduating from high school in 1961, Lolita entered the Congregation at Los Gatos.

For more than forty years, Lolita has served in elementary education as teacher and as principal. During some of those years, she was a volunteer chaplain visiting inmates at the Bryant Street Jail in San Francisco. From 1990 until 1996, Lolita was privileged to work with Sisters and staff at Convent of the Holy Names, Los Gatos. Following her ministry there, she returned to teaching predominately English language learners from East Palo Alto at St. Elizabeth Seton School for 17 years. She then returned to teaching at St. Patrick School (sponsored by The Daughters of Charity) in San Jose for five years. Now retired, Lolita enjoys greeting people and showing caring interest in the residents at Merrill Gardens in Campbell, CA.

The best parts of Lolita’s ministries are the people who have touched and enriched her life. She is very grateful to belong to a religious community that stands on the side of the marginalized. Whether it is inmates, English language learners, the materially poor, or the blind, Lolita feels she has received more than she has given.

Mimi Maloney, SNJM

Sister Mimi Maloney was born and raised in Spokane – in St. Aloysius Parish – the fifth child in a family of nine. Her mom and dad, Geneva Walsh and Justin C. Maloney, were deeply spiritual people who influenced her life profoundly.

Mimi was drawn to religious life and to the SNJMs both by a hunger she had always felt in her heart for God, and by the desire to be of service to those who were poor, vulnerable and on the margins, and to work for social, economic and environmental justice.

Her ministries included teaching, parish outreach, and working with the Spanish speaking. For nearly 24 years she was privileged to work in a home in Olympia, Washington, for men with developmental disabilities. Recently she worked at Villa Del Mar Retreat Center in Santa Cruz, California. Throughout, Mimi offered retreats, preached, and wrote articles as an expression of her deep passion for the Great Story of Evolution and advocating with others for economic and environmental justice.

Once again in Spokane, Mimi is so grateful to her family, friends and to the Sisters of the Holy Names for the support and for the opportunities in ministry she has been given to live out the SNJM charism. “This is the day our God has made. Let us rejoice and be glad!”

Patricia McCrann, SNJM

On August 25, 1961, Sister Pat McCrann crossed the Provincial House threshold at Marylhurst, Oregon, a first step in becoming a Holy Names Sister. Reflecting over her 60 years of vowed life, Pat is full of gratitude for the ministries calling her to serve and inviting her to become more than she ever dared to dream or imagine.

She is grateful for the SNJM charism that continues to challenge, deepening our awareness of the unmet needs of God’s people and of our planet.

Pat thanks the parents who entrusted their sixth- and seventh-grade children to her in Portland and Medford. She loved opening pathways for each young person to reach their full potential.

Called to serve as Associate Pastor in the inner-city parish of Immaculate Heart, Portland, the community invited her to experience a variety of cultures, bringing forth gifts she had no idea were there. She treasures the friendships that continue to this day.

In 1986 Pat, who lives in Oregon City, responded to the Spirit’s invitation to found a Center, the name given her, Namasté, a word of greeting “I honor the God within you.” She is privileged to offer programs celebrating the spiritual life and offering space for rest and renewal. Many partners offered their encouragement, time and talents to bring to life the House of Solitude and Redwood Cottage.

Love continues to call her. And each day she responds, “Yes” and “Thank You”.

Patricia Pfenning, SNJM

Sister Patricia Pfenning is a fifth-generation Oregonian on her Mom’s side and second-generation on her Dad’s. She’s proud of both.

After World War II, Patricia’s Dad came home and the family moved to Holy Redeemer Parish, Portland, Oregon. She attended Holy Redeemer School, Immaculata Academy and then Marylhurst College.

During her junior year at Marylhurst, her Dad asked her to cook in their tavern for the summer to relieve her Mother who was ill. The next year she worked full-time in a variety of jobs including at a department store and an insurance company.

In August 1961, she entered the SNJM Community. Briefly, she was Sister Mary Arlene. Her first ministry was as a high school teacher for 11 years. She then served as an Administrative Assistant at the college, high school and elementary levels.

Patricia had two favorite ministries. Working at Loyola Retreat House, Portland, gave her the chance to preach, teach, and walk with individuals on their spiritual path. The second was the time spent in the Central Oregon town of Dufur as parish minister.

Her motto has been “I show up and hang around.” Now retired and living at Mary’s Woods in Lake Oswego, Patricia tries to continue living that rule of life. Her ministry is presence and attentiveness to those around her.

Vivian Ripp, SNJM

Sister Vivian Ripp was raised in Salem, Oregon. During grade and high school, the Holy Names Sisters fostered in her a love of music, learning, art, and service that led to her entry into the Community. Her first ministries were in education as a music teacher, classroom teacher and principal.

In completing a master’s in applied spirituality, Vivian was led to Clinical Pastoral Education and became a hospital chaplain. For the next period of her life, she served as chaplain in hospitals in Missoula, Montana, and Eugene, Oregon.

Music once more entered her life when Vivian responded to the call to learn how to use the elements of music prescriptively with the dying with the use of voice and harp. As she continued as a chaplain, she studied the harp and music-thanatology and became a certified music-thanatologist. She also had the privilege of providing leadership in establishing an international music-thanatology professional organization that certifies music-thanatologists and offers yearly conferences.

Since retiring, Vivian, who resides in Portland, Oregon, has been living in what she calls the NOW moments of life, including as co-coordinator of the Lay Consecrated program for the US-Ontario Province and pre-pandemic as accompanist for the Oregon SNJM Chamber Ensemble.

Mary Ellen Robinson, SNJM

Sister Mary Ellen Robinson felt a call to live and work among Spanish speaking immigrants early on, when she got acquainted with children of Mexican farmworkers in the Yakima Valley, whose circumstances were astonishingly different from her middle-class students at Christ the King in Richland. Though detours through the next 40 years included serving in the Peace Corps in Kenya, East Africa, for a profound experience of the global south, she kept returning to “Hispanic ministry” whenever she could, including teaching immigrant children in public schools.

Thanks to constant SNJM support, she is quite bilingual, and has been living and working at Marie-Rose House in Wapato, Yakima Valley, Washington, since 2005. Highlights of the journey? Being pastoral administrator of Oroville and Tonasket in north central Washington where she helped two Spanish-speaking congregations take root; and, much later, sponsoring teachers from Mexico to volunteer in Wapato for summer programs so immigrant farmworkers’ children and grandchildren could develop knowledge and pride in their parental heritage.

Mary Ellen loves her own mixed immigrant roots of devout Irish Catholics and Robinson Protestants, Oregon Trail pioneers. She identifies deeply with both the urban Seattle-Tacoma corridor and rural Washington and wants them to stay connected.

Rosemary Thielman, SNJM

Sister Rosemary Thielman’s favorite scripture quote is: “See, I make all things new.” Her favorite words are “healing” and “magical” – words that echoed within her 47 years ago after a log at the beach rolled over her, almost taking her life.

Rosemary grew up in Spokane, Washington, with parents, Grace and William (Bill), and four brothers, James, David, Craig and Daniel. Two other siblings, Karen and Patrick, died young.

Graduating from Holy Names Academy, she entered religious life. She received a BA from Fort Wright College: an MA in Educational Administration from Western Washington University.

She was a teacher at St. Patrick’s Spokane, and Immaculate Conception, Everett, then principal at St. Mary’s Seattle and St. Philomena, Des Moines (WA), then Personnel Director, Associate Superintendent, and Acting Superintendent in the Seattle Archdiocesan Catholic School Department.

She served at New Community, rebuilding Newark, New Jersey, and as Administrator at International RENEW, returning to Idaho at St. Pius Parish and the University of Idaho as Student Teacher supervisor.

Rosemary, who lives in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho, co-founded Wisdomworks, a ministry assisting elders, women and businesses to find greater meaning in their lives. “God’s Nudgings,” an elder retreat, was offered in three states plus Lesotho, Africa.

She greets each day with: THANK YOU.

Terese Tsang, SNJM

Sister Terese Tsang was born in Canton (now Guangzhou), China, but her family later moved to Hong Kong where she was educated.

In 1961 Terese entered the Sisters Announcers of the Lord, a teaching community in Hong Kong. She studied music and kindergarten education and taught in local schools. Later she assumed leadership roles in her Community and was the treasurer and a faculty member at Our Lady of the Rosary College, Hong Kong.

In 1983 she studied English in the United States and became well acquainted with the Holy Names Sisters. Nine years later she transferred to the Holy Names Community in Oregon making her final vows as an SNJM on December 20, 1992, noting that “I believe I am where God wants me to be.”

For 14 years, Sister worked with the Chinese community in San Francisco, teaching at St. Mary’s Day School and assisting in parish work at Holy Family Parish. She then moved to Portland, Oregon, where she taught Cantonese in the Chinese Language School, offered music lessons, led a Chinese prayer group and visited a nursing home.

Terese recently moved to Mary’s Woods retirement community, Lake Oswego, Oregon, where she is enjoying meeting new friends and reacquainting with old ones.

Sue Woodruff, SNJM

Sister Sue Woodruff grew up in Salem, Oregon, the oldest of the four daughters of Floyd and Rosa Woodruff. After high school, she followed God’s prompting and joined the Sisters of the Holy Names at Marylhurst.

Her first assignments were as an elementary teacher at SNJM schools in Portland, Salem and Medford in Oregon and Daly City in California.

From these beginnings, Sue set out on new and diverse paths, working as an educational counselor for Portland’s Urban Indian Council and as the editor for a magazine on Creation Spirituality out of Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Recognized for her insight and discerning spirit, Sue was tapped by the SNJM community to take on leadership roles at both the Provincial and Congregational levels. She later completed an MA in Art Therapy which led to work with women who had suffered trauma.

In recent years Sue, who lives in Lake Oswego, Oregon, has devoted her time to working in the Sisters’ Archives where she relishes the opportunity to keep alive the individual stories of Sisters’ lives and the preservation of the heritage of mission and ministry of the Sisters of the Holy Names.