[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 5 (Tuesday, January 25, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E60-E61]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




HONORING SISTER MARY WILLIAM BRADY (1907-2005), FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE 
            COLLEGE OF ST. CATHERINE IN ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. BETTY McCOLLUM

                              of minnesota

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, January 25, 2005

  Ms. McCOLLUM of Minnesota. Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor the life of 
Sister Mary William Brady, who was an inspiration to her family and 
everyone who knew her, particularly the students, faculty and staff at 
the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, Minnesota. Sister Mary passed 
away on January 10, 2005 at the age of 98.
  Sister Mary William Brady served as president of the College of St. 
Catherine from 1955 to 1961 and was associated with the college for 
more than 70 years. An outstanding professor and forward-looking 
president, she helped build St. Kate's into the largest Catholic 
college for women. As an alumna, I feel privileged to have known her.
  Sister Mary made lasting contributions to the College of St. 
Catherine, as well as to the education and preparation of many young 
women as leaders of our communities. Her dedication and integrity will 
be greatly missed at St. Kate's.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to insert into the Congressional Record the 
following Star Tribune article honoring Sister Mary William Brady:

           [From the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Jan. 14, 2005]

                     Sister Mary William Brady, 98

                        (By Mary Jane Smetanka)

       Sister Mary William Brady, the oldest living former 
     president of the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, died 
     Monday at Bethany Convent. She was 98.
       Brady, president of St. Kate's from 1955 to 1961, was 
     associated with the college for more than 70 years. In an 
     interview three weeks before her death, on the occasion of 
     the college's centennial, she told a life story that made it 
     seem she was destined for St. Kate's. A native of Fall River, 
     Mass., she joined her brother William in St. Paul in 1930 
     after her father's death.
       ``I had no intention of staying in `the West,' '' Brady 
     recalled. Each summer between classes at St. Kate's and an 
     early job as a teacher at a St. Paul Catholic school, she 
     returned to Fall River. Her mother finally told her there was 
     nothing left for an educated woman to do there, and Brady 
     moved back to St. Paul permanently.
       ``I liked it here very much,'' she said.
       Her brother went on to become archbishop of St. Paul from 
     1956 to 1961.
       Brady joined the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet and 
     became an English professor at St. Kate's, specializing in 
     American literature. She became one of a corps of remarkably 
     outward-looking nuns who built the school into the nation's 
     largest Catholic college for women, earning her doctorate 
     from the University of Chicago in a time when the sight of a 
     black habit on that campus drew double-takes from other 
     students.
       ``Every young sister had to develop herself as far as she 
     could go,'' she said. ``They could barely afford to send me 
     to the University of Minnesota or Chicago, but they did.
       ``You were educated not for yourself, but for what you 
     could give to others.''
       Brady downplayed her accomplishments as president, saying, 
     ``I wasn't a good administrator--I preferred teaching.''

[[Page E61]]

       But it was during her tenure as president that the school 
     built a much-needed new library. As students and faculty 
     members carried the 95,000 books from the old building to the 
     new, they received a brownie from a nun.
       When she left the presidency, Brady studied in Rome for a 
     year, taught at a college in Los Angeles and rejoined St. 
     Kate's as a professor and archivist. She retired in 1993, 
     moving to Bethany Convent, a residence and nursing home for 
     older sisters at the edge of the St. Kate's campus.
       Brady kept a rosary on the table next to her easy chair and 
     had a keen memory up to the time of her death. Interested in 
     horse racing, she insisted on going to a movie theater in her 
     wheelchair to see ``Seabiscuit'' and had a portrait of 
     Kentucky Derby winner Smarty Jones taped to a cabinet in her 
     room.
       ``I love that horse!'' she said.
       Brady's brother preceded her in death. There are no 
     immediate survivors.

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