Sister Ethel Dignan, BVM (Howard)

DIGNAN, SULLIVAN

Posted By: Ken Wright (email)
Date: 6/20/2018 at 05:44:02

Sister Ethel Dignan, BVM (Howard), 94, of 1050 Carmel Drive, Dubuque, Iowa, passed away Thursday, June 14, 2018, at Marian Hall.

Visitation will be 9-10:15 a.m. on Wednesday, June 20, 2018, at the Marian Hall Chapel, followed immediately by the Sharing of Memories and the Mass of Christian Burial. Burial is in the Mt. Carmel Cemetery.

Sister Ethel was a psychology professor and department chair at Clarke University in Dubuque and a psychologist at the Dubuque Community Health Center. She was a psychologist in Chicago, San Jose, Calif., and Los Gatos, Calif., where she also served as director of a mental health center. She volunteered in Hispanic ministry in Los Angeles and San Jose, Calif.

She was born in Chicago on May 19, 1924, to Francis and Mary Jane Sullivan Dignan. She entered the BVM congregation Feb. 14, 1950, from St. Francis Xavier Parish in New York City. She professed first vows on Aug. 15, 1952, and final vows on Aug. 15, 1957.

She was preceded in death by her parents; sisters Dee McMinn and Patricia Dignan; and brothers Thomas and Francis, both in childhood. She is survived by nieces, grandnieces, grandnephews, and the Sisters of Charity, BVM, with whom she shared life for 68 years.