Strawn, Carole | Sisters of the Holy Names

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Carole Strawn, SNJM

Sister Carole Strawn was born in Corvallis, Oregon, to Kenneth and Agnes Rohner Strawn. The oldest of five children including Jim, Rick, Kathy and Cindy, she grew up in Salem and attended St. Joseph’s Grade School and Sacred Heart Academy, both Holy Names schools.

After high school graduation she entered the novitiate of the Sisters of the Holy Names at Marylhurst. On completing her bachelor of arts in social sciences at Marylhurst College, she spent 16 years in elementary education. She taught at St. Joseph’s in Salem and at Holy Redeemer, St. Ignatius and Assumption in Portland and was principal at St. Ignatius. During this time she completed a master’s in interdisciplinary studies (anthropology, geography, sociology) at Western Oregon.

Following her years in elementary education, for the next five years she served as communications director for the SNJM Oregon Province. Moving across the ravine to the south end of the Marylhurst property, she spent 25 years at Marylhurst University in the Marketing and Communications Department as well as shepherding the University Archives. It was an exciting time to be in publications as she engaged in the transition from all paper processes to fully digital production and web-oriented world of publications and communication.

Perpetually the student and a proponent of lifelong learning, she completed a master of divinity (2012) and a graduate certificate in gerontology (2015) while working at Marylhurst. Both of these have nurtured in her a deeper engagement with the spiritual side supportive of a creative bent toward reflective and poetic composition.

Pursing a lifetime interest, Carole now works at Holy Names Heritage Center as an archivist. Her great joy in this endeavor is the opportunity to “meet” the Sisters who so richly embodied the spirituality of the Sisters of the Holy Names.

In addition, over her 60 years, Carole has given long-term service to many SNJM endeavors, including committees for justice and peace, corporate stands, archives and governance. She also served on the boards of Jesuit Volunteer Corps: NW, and Catholic Peace Ministry, and was a member of an interfaith group, People of Faith against Bigotry.

For nearly 20 years, she was editor and designer of Ventures, a publication of the Oregon Province development office. She still writes for various purposes for the Sisters and, drawing from her experience while at the University, she continues to wear the hat of Marylhurst historian giving talks, conducting campus tours and researching and writing on multiple aspects of the Marylhurst story.

Through all this, a directional focus in her life as a vowed religious has been the Gospel Beatitudes (Mt. 3, 5-11). “Blessed are…, Happy are…” She is grateful for the blessing of family, friends and SNJM community she has experienced in her life. She often credits the seed of her vocation to her remarkable Swiss grandmother whose joyful and genuine faith inspired her as a small child.

As Carole celebrates this year of Jubilee, she prays for a world of beatitude and genuineness, that all may rejoice in God’s wonders, remarkable persons and exquisite universe. “Blessed be.”