Sister Alma Marie Messing, OP 1926-2021 During her four years as a student at Dominican High School in Detroit, Carolyn Mary Ann Messing, the future Sister Alma Marie, enjoyed all sorts of academic subjects, including math and Latin, but was not at all fond of science. What makes that fact especially ironic is that she went on to earn her graduate degree in science, teach the sciences, and help set up school science programs throughout her time in elementary and secondary education, and work at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. Carolyn was born on May 25, 1926, in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, to Frank and Alma (Treppa) Messing. She was the first of three children born to the couple; one brother, Frank, was born three years later, and her other brother, Don, joined the family in 1939. The siblings had a happy childhood, often riding their bikes to see their grandparents and as a family visiting each set of grandparents regularly. In her life story, Sister Alma Marie recalled how her Grandmother Messing loved to cook and how the family would gather at the Treppa home for spirited games of Monopoly followed by midnight snacks. Her family and her maternal grandparents also traveled to many exciting places, such as New York City where, she wrote, the best part of the trip for her was seeing the Planter’s Peanut man. The family lived in St. Clare of Montefalco Parish and the children all received their elementary schooling from the Dominican Sisters of Columbus, Ohio, who taught at the parish school. When Carolyn reached high school age, she chose the then-new Dominican High School, becoming part of its charter class in 1940, and it was there that she met the Adrian Dominican Sisters. In addition to enjoying math and Latin (but not science), she was very active in verse choir and drama club during high school, and was the youngest member of the Catholic Theater of Detroit. Among the highlights of her theatrical experiences were getting to perform in plays staged by the University of Detroit and having a play she wrote accepted by Detroit radio station WXYZ. By the time she graduated from Dominican High (as the class valedictorian), she knew she wanted to enter the Congregation. She wrote in her life story that it was not because she especially felt called to religious life as such; rather, she had been inspired by the Sisters she had met and impressed by their works, and wanted to be a part of those works. While her parents were generally supportive of her decision, they wanted to make sure she was not making the choice out of unhappiness. She assured them she was not, and on June 25, 1944, her parents, with little Don in tow, brought her to Adrian. According to her life story, when it was time for the family to leave, the hardest parting of all was saying good-bye to Don, who had just turned six years old. Don himself shared his memory of that day in a remembrance sent to Adrian after Sister Alma Marie’s death: After getting to Adrian and playing for several hours, my mother said, “OK, Don, it’s time to go home.” … I turned to Sister and said, “aren’t you coming home, why are you staying here, what is going on? I want you to come with us, all of us, Mom, Dad, Carolyn and me!” I kept repeating those same things … until eventually all of us were crying. … As a six-year-old, it was not easy to understand. Sister Alma Marie completed her postulancy and became a novice in January 1945, receiving the religious name she had asked for in honor of her mother. When her canonical novitiate year was complete in January 1946, she was assigned to remain in Adrian to study at Siena Heights College (University), but a few weeks later was sent to St. Joseph, Michigan, to temporarily replace a Sister who taught science. She was still required to keep up her college coursework, however, and completed her bachelor’s degree in mixed sciences later in 1946. She was then sent to study at the Institutum Divi Thomae in Cincinnati, Ohio, and spent the next three years there, earning her master’s degree in mixed sciences in 1949. From that point on, almost all her teaching came at the high school and college level, and all in science. Over the next twenty years, Sister Alma Marie taught at St. Ann High School (1949-1950) and then Rosarian Academy (1950-1956), both in West Palm Beach, Florida; St. Joseph Academy in Adrian (1956-1958); Central Catholic High School, Fort Lauderdale, Florida (1958-1959); Barry College (University), Miami Shores, Florida (1959-1963); Aquinas College, Nassau, Bahamas (1963-January 1965); St. Lawrence High School, Utica, Michigan (January-June 1965); Dominican High School, her alma mater (1965-1967); Regina Dominican High School, Wilmette, Illinois (1967-1968); and Bishop Muldoon High School, Rockford, Illinois (1968-1970). With the exception of her four-year tenure at Barry College, her time at all these places was short mostly because her task was to help the schools get their science programs set up. “Although the moving was sometimes tedious, the opportunity to meet, work and live with so many members of the Congregation was a priceless experience for which I am grateful,” she wrote in her life story. They were also years filled with great experiences, including a trip around the world in 1967, arranged by her parents, that she took with Sister Paul James Villemure. Getting to travel through twenty-three countries “was the most educational endeavor I have ever experienced,” she wrote. Her time at Barry coincided with Fidel Castro’s expulsion of professionals from Cuba, many of whom were assisted in their adjustment to the U.S. by members of the Barry faculty, including Sister Mary Kenneth Duwelius. She also had the experience during those years of spending her summers in the Washington, D.C., area, doing cancer research at the National Institutes of Health. With the closure of Muldoon High School in 1970, Sister Alma Marie found herself on the move again. She enrolled at the University of Chicago for full-time study toward her Ph.D. in curriculum, and spent three years there until being sent to Siena Heights to teach math and science for the 1973-1974 school year. When she returned to the University of Chicago planning to finish her doctorate, she got a job at the Museum of Science and Industry in order to fund her studies, and worked there in one capacity or another for the rest of her life in active ministry with the exception of several months in 1977 that she spent in Detroit caring for her mother until her mother’s death. Her father had died just two years earlier in 1975. In addition to her work at the museum, she taught science in two Chicago schools, Gate of Heaven in 1978-1979 and St. Ailbe from 1979-1983. In all, she was at the museum for twenty-five years as a lecturer, Elderhostel coordinator, researcher and more. She also assisted in the museum’s NASA Resource Center and got to meet many of the people who were part of the space program at that time. Her connection to NASA continued after retirement, as for many years she presented workshops on the space program at the Johnson Space Center in Houston for teachers and at various schools. Sister Alma Marie remained in Chicago until 2018, when she returned to Adrian to live. Retirement, whether in Chicago or Adrian, allowed her to devote more time to the crafting she had done for much of her life, whether it was knitting, embroidery, gourd art, or even something more unusual. Pat Daly, president of the Dominican Institute for the Arts, in a remembrance of Sister Alma Marie, told of Sister’s expertise in the ancient art of quilling and how one of her pieces had made it to the Dominican Sisters International in Rome after the DSI asked for depictions of the Visitation. After that, Sister was invited to join the Institute, and “I am very happy to have known, from long distance, this gracious, sweet and delightful member of our DIA family,” Pat wrote. Sister Alma Marie died in Adrian on May 20, 2021, just five days short of her ninety-fifth birthday. She was in her seventy-sixth year of profession as an Adrian Dominican Sister. In addition to her brother Don and Pat Daly, many members of her family and several of her Adrian Dominican Sisters sent in their memories of Sister Alma Marie. Her brother Frank’s family recalled that in their younger years Sister still wore the full habit, and when she switched to secular clothing “we were all surprised to learn that Sister had hair.” Sister Joyce Caulfield wrote of how much she and her twin great-nieces treasured the origami hearts Sister Alma Marie made for them out of dollar bills, and of how much Sister Alma Marie delighted sharing her creations with the Sisters at the Dominican Life Center. “Because of Alma’s love for what she did, many felt an emotional connection to her and her works of art,” Sister Joyce wrote. Sister Jamie Phelps preached Sister Alma Marie’s funeral homily. Sister Alma shared her gifts with whomever she encountered. Alma’s life story makes it clear that she understood and embodied God’s love as recorded in our first reading [1 Corinthians 12:31-13:7]… She examined all things through her scientific eye and ultimately believed in the goodness of all persons and all things.