Sister Dorothy Olinger, SSND

As the Good Counsel community gathered for Liturgy, our beloved Sister Dorothy Olinger, 92, died peacefully at 11:00 a.m. on Monday, August 17, 2015, in Notre Dame Health Care, Our Lady of Good Counsel, Mankato, Minnesota. She entered hospice in June and patiently awaited her union with the Source of All Being. Her nieces, Elaine Schoenberger and Mary Beth Wojciechowski, along with several sisters, were present with her when she died. Family members, friends and sisters had kept vigil with her during the past weeks. The Memorial Mass for Sister Dorothy, with Father Eugene Stenzel as presider, will be at 10:30 a.m., Friday, August 21, in Good Counsel Chapel, Mankato. The vigil service will be at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday. We extend our sympathy to her nieces and nephews and their families, her friends, former students and colleagues, and her sisters in community, the School Sisters of Notre Dame. She was preceded in death by her parents, Laurence and Theresa (Panter) Olinger, her sisters, Marie Neill, Agnes Hiebert, Bea Brey, Claire Bach, Maddalyn Giese and Phyllis Dentinger, and her brothers, George, Frank, Rudy, Eugene and Robert. The youngest of 12 children, Sister Dorothy was born on July 4, 1923, in Mankato, and baptized Dorothy Theresa Mary at SS. Peter & Paul Church four days later. She grew up on the family farm south of Mankato. She wrote, "My father was the finest of farmers and my mother an accomplished homemaker. I marvel at the skills my parents exhibited as well as the unimaginable workload they carried. My father was also a beekeeper, wine/beer maker (and root beer), mechanic, butcher, builder and more. My mother raised big vegetable gardens and berry crops and canned everything, had beautiful flowers, and a yearly brood of chickens. . . . I cannot write an autobiography without describing my admiration and gratitude to these staunch German Catholics." In 1928, Dorothy entered kindergarten at SS. Peter & Paul School. For 13 years she was taught by the School Sisters of Notre Dame. She later wrote, "All those years I did not envision becoming one of them. Yet it was their joy in life, the dedication that drew me. At the senior Jesuit retreat, the thought of a vocation came to me. . . . I talked to the priest giving the retreat, who was helpful. Then I consulted our principal, Sister Pia Becker. She encouraged me and told me to talk to my parents." Dorothy's father suggested that she wait a year, but consented, as did her mother. Dorothy was grateful to her parents who, at that time, were 60 and 70 years old and could have used her help at home. Dorothy entered the SSND candidature in 1941. She commented later, "My entrance is rather unique in the matter of paying the modest sum required. My father and brother a month later brought a truckload of potatoes to the convent!" As a second-year candidate she taught 45 fourth graders at St. Andrew School, St. Paul. She was received into the novitiate on July 21, 1943, and given her father's name, Laurence. She later returned to her baptismal name. She professed first vows on July 22, 1944, and began the first of what she called her "three careers of about 20 years each." As a teacher, she ministered in upper grades and high school in the following schools: St. Francis de Sales (1944-46) and St. Matthew (1946-50), both in St. Paul; Good Counsel Academy, Mankato (1950-55 and 1965-66); Notre Dame High School, Cresco, IA (1955-57); St. Peter High School, Hokah (1957-58); St. Agnes High School, St. Paul (1958-62); St. Anthony, Lismore, where she was also high school principal (1962-65); and St. Michael High School, St. Michael (1965-66). She earned a B.A. in English and math from the College of St. Catherine in 1950 and an M.A. in History from the Catholic University in Washington, D.C. in 1957. In 1970, she earned an additional M.A. in Religious Education from Webster College in St. Louis. In the summer of 1967, she worked for two months at Our Lady of Sorrows Parish in Chicago's West Side. She called it "a learning experience, our first real opportunity to know ghetto life from the inside - some little insight into the complex and severe problems of the poor and the discriminated. Helping those who live in the ghetto to receive full justice and full equality of opportunity is an apostolate that ought to appeal strongly to us who say we are poor." Sister Dorothy's "second career" was working in parish religious education programs. In 1967, she joined her high school classmate, Sister Mary Boylan, at St. Bonaventure Catechetical School in Bloomington. She listed five areas of ministry: teacher preparation for 60 catechists, adult discussion groups, ecumenical meetings, neighborhood groups and visiting. She added, "There are unclassified activities going on all the time, and opportunities to share in such public areas as panels and adult education. The work and opportunities are here if we are creative and responsive enough to utilize them." She stayed at St. Bonaventure until 1971 when she moved to St. Mary, Willmar, for three years. Her final religious education position was at St. Michael, Prior Lake (1974-79). In 1979, she was asked by the provincial council to help develop programs for the unused space at Good Counsel Education Center in Mankato. Following a sabbatical in 1983-84, Sister Dorothy began her "third career in education," working with Global Education Associates (GEA) founded by Patricia and Gerald Mischke. Sister Dorothy wrote, "They were visionaries who saw ahead of their times the need for a new world vision. Through them I met the prophet of our age, Thomas Berry, a Passionist priest and cultural historian. . . .Berry's insights help us to learn from science the New Story that illustrates our interconnectedness with all creation." Sister Dorothy became a co-director and then director of the Global Education Associates Upper Midwest office. She was passionate about the ideals of GEA and shared this enthusiasm in various ways. Her writings often contained this message: "What we do to the earth we do to ourselves. God calls us to care for the earth and each other." She was especially touched by an opportunity to travel to Nepal. She related the following to her friend, Kay Helms, who included it in her photo essay, "Hands:" "Friends in the Peace Corps offered to pay my way to Nepal if, in exchange, I would bring their dog back to the States and find a home for it. As I was walking along a street in Katmandu, I saw children in a school room right next to the sidewalk. I stuck my head in and said, Hi, everybody!' All those children in unison folded their hands and called out to me, Namaste.' That is their greeting. It is so beautiful because it means I greet the God within you. I greet the Divine within you.'" During her time as GEA director, she also worked as Justice and Peace Coordinator for the SSND Mankato Province, and published the "Peace Site Communicator" several times a year. In 2004, Sister Dorothy retired from her work at GEA. The next four years, she served in St. Paul by volunteering and continuing to share her passion for the earth. A series of health issues caused her to come to Good Counsel in 2008. After regaining her strength, she could be seen walking the grounds several times a day. She continued to advocate for those in need and twice (at age 90 and 91) participated in Pedal Past Poverty, a stationary bicycle ride to raise funds for Mankato's homeless shelters. In October 2014, she received the Call to Action-Minnesota 2014 Leadership Award. In retirement, as well as during her active life, her family was very important to her and often visited her. After her recent decline in health, friends and staff provided her with daily wheelchair rides in her beloved outdoors. Sister Dorothy introduced one of her autobiographical accounts with these words, "I come from Earth, I am Earth, I will return to Earth' sums up my life." May she now be united with the Source of All Being . . . who is manifest in the Wonder and Beauty of Earth.