Mary Alois Kessler

KESSLER, RYAN, ROHERT

Posted By: Greg Strub (email)
Date: 4/14/2010 at 16:00:27

1988 - 25 July - Iowa City Press Citizen

Sister Mary Alois Kessler, RSM

Sister Mary Alois Kessler, RSM, of the Mercy Hospital Convent died Wednesday at Mercy Hospital in Iowa City after a brief illness. She was 76.

Mass will be said at 11 a.m. Saturday at St. Wenceslaus Catholic Church with the Rev. Joseph Denning officiating. Burial will be in St. Peter's Cemetery, Cosgrove.

Friends may call after 10a.m. Friday at the Mercy Hospital Chapel where a rosary will be said at 7:30 p.m. Friday. Memorial donations may be made to the Mercy Hospital Foundation. Donohue-Lensing funeral home is in charge of arrangements.

Sister Alois was born June 9, 1909, in Cosgrove, a daughter of Aloysius and Helen Ryan Kessler. She entered the Sisters of Mercy on Feb. 2, 1940, professed her vows on Aug. 16, 1942, and took her final vows in August, 1945. She was a graduate of the Mercy Hospital School of Nursing in Davenport and received her B.S. degree in nursing in 1952 from Marquette University. She had served in Mercy hospitals in Davenport, Marshalltown, Chicago and Iowa City. She organized the Department of Pastoral Care at Mercy Hospital in 1969, where she served as its first director. She had been on the Mercy Hospital Board of Directors and its Foundation Board. She had been active on the Catholic Vicariate Board and had helped organized the natural family planning program.

Survivors include two sisters, Genevieve Kessler of Iowa City and Helena (Mrs. Larry) Rohert of Coralville; a brother, Louis Kessler of Iowa City, and numerous nieces and nephews. Three brothers and two sisters died earlier.