Sister Fidelis Halpin
1913-2011

God gave Sister Fidelis Halpin the gift of living ninety-eight years. At her death, she was in her seventy-ninth year spent as a Dominican Sister in service to the Church, seventy years as a Sister in the Edmonds Dominicans in Washington State, and in her ninth year as an Adrian Dominican Sister. The Edmonds Dominicans merged with the Adrian Dominicans in June 2003.

Sister Fidelis died in Seattle, Washington, on September 16, 2011. A vigil service was held for her on September 22 at St. Joseph Residence, at which Sister Judith Benkert, Prioress of the Dominican West Mission Chapter, summarized Sister Fidelis’s interesting life and ministry. The Mass of Christian Burial occurred on September 23, also at St. Joseph Residence. She was buried in Calvary Cemetery in Seattle.

Marcella Elizabeth Halpin, the future Sister Fidelis, was born on a stormy night, the night of March 8, 1913, to Philip and Agnes (Fanning) Halpin. The site was her grandparents’ farm near Andover, South Dakota. Her grandfather had died about a month before her birth, and her parents were staying on the farm to help her grandmother overcome her loneliness. After a few weeks, the Halpins moved back to their own home in Andover. Three more children, all girls, were born in the following years: Phyllis, Joan, and Jeanne. All three later married, and preceded Sister Fidelis in death.

The Halpin home was located across the street from All Saints School, staffed by the Irish Presentation Sisters, and there Marcella began her education. She wrote, “Even before I attended first grade, I observed the mysterious lives of the Sisters with great fascination.” However, the Great Depression was in full swing, and All Saints School closed.

The family moved several times in the next few years, and Marcella attended a public school in Groton, South Dakota. When they moved to Washington State, she attended schools in Monroe, Skykomish, and Scenic. In her autobiography, she wrote of the fun the family had hiking and skiing in the Washington mountains and learning to swim in the Skykomish River. She also learned to cook and play pinochle.

Her first year of high school was at Immaculate Conception in Seattle, where she lived with family friends and experienced the pain of separation from her parents and sisters. When the Halpins moved to Seattle, they were together again. She finished her high school years at Holy Angels Academy, graduating in May 1931. She was obviously a good student, as she was named salutatorian of her class. She also admired her Dominican teachers.

Just a short time after graduation, on July 1, she entered the postulate at Everett, Washington. She wrote, “After a tearful farewell to my dog and accompanied by my parents, I joined eleven other postulants.” She entered the novitiate and received her religious name on January 13, 1932. Her novitiate was a happy time for her. She grew spiritually, and “advanced in the art of cooking, canning, and other domestic duties.” With her group, she professed her first vows on January 17, 1933.

After profession she was assigned to St. Joseph Hospital in Aberdeen, where she remained for many years. For the first three years, during which she “grew in wisdom and maturity,” she was a student in the Nurses Training School, and was licensed as a registered nurse in 1936. In 1938, she spent six months doing more study at Margaret Hague Maternity Hospital in Jersey City, New Jersey, and was certified in obstetrical nursing. As a result of study at Seattle College, she earned the bachelor’s degree cum laude in nursing in 1941. For twenty-one years, she served St. Joseph Hospital as superior and hospital administrator, obstetrical supervisor, directress of nursing, hospital superintendent, and local prioress. She also planned and was in charge of the construction of “a new 125-bed hospital” that was completed in 1952. It is obvious that she was considered a talented nurse and fine administrator.

In 1954, she was assigned as Directress of Nursing at St. Helen Hospital in Chehalis, where she also served as prioress and superintendent. In addition, she served the Washington State Hospital Association as a member of various Boards and Committees. Again, she was in charge of new construction. An addition was built on the nursing home and also a kitchen that served both the hospital and nursing home. For ten years, she ministered at St. Helen Hospital.

During these years, in 1956, she began summer work on a master’s degree at Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio, which she did not complete. In 1962 and for several following summers, she took courses at the Institute on Management of Facilities for the Care of the Aged in San Francisco, California.

She returned to St. Joseph Hospital, Aberdeen, in 1964, where she was Directress of Nursing and assistant administrator. When emergencies arose, she served wherever needed. In 1965 she was elected to membership in the American College of Hospital Administrators, and also President of the Washington Hospital Association.

She wrote that in 1967 she was looking for “a quieter and more serene life.” Father William Wasson had founded the Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos Orphanage in Acolman, Mexico, and was looking for nurses. She and Sister Philomena Perreault obtained permission to work there. Sister Fidelis served as Director of Health Care; and ten years later when the orphanage moved to Cuernavaca, she and Sister Philomena set up two clinics where Sister Fidelis served as nursing director. She wrote:

I learned to drive in Mexico City, sometimes experiencing encounters with Mexico City policemen. . . . The fact that I was often driving a semi-ambulance carrying a sick child sometimes helped. Some other activities I was engaged in were: hiking in the hills near the property, kite-flying with the children, horseback riding, hosting meals for visiting benefactors, and attending fiestas and religious celebrations in the nearby villages. We made wonderful friends among the native Mexicans and United States volunteers who came and went through the years.

During the time that the two Sisters served at the orphanage, articles about them appeared in the Aberdeen Daily Work of May 16, 1970, and in several other unidentified and undated newspaper articles saved in their files. Their work was also given publicity in Mexican newspapers and in a lengthy article in their files that appeared in an unidentified magazine published in 1969. The magazine article included many pictures of them at work.

In 1978, after ministering for eleven years in Mexico, the two Ssters felt a need for community life. Sad to leave the children who were dear to them and all the friends they had made, they left Mexico and returned to the United States. Their leaving was publicized in a Washington newspaper, and also in a Mexican newspaper.

Upon her return, Sister Fidelis served as administrator St. Joseph Hospital in Aberdeen and a few months as administrator of St. Helen Hospital until the hospitals were turned over to the Providence Sisters in 1983.

She moved to Dominican House in Seattle in 1983, where she was assistant retirement coordinator for six years, and also a volunteer at Rose Hedge Home for AIDS Patients. In addition, she served on several committees. In 1985, she attended a symposium on liberation theology in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

During this time, in July 1987, she and Sister Philomena went to Haiti, with the idea of aiding Father Wasson in the establishment of an orphanage. Sister Fidelis was there for only three months when she became ill and was forced to return to Seattle. She wrote, “My age and the hot climate of Port au Prince were against me.”

In 1989 she returned to Haiti and ministered in the orphanage with Sister Philomena, also helping to set up a small clinic. She was seventy-eight years of age when she left Haiti in 1991 and returned to Dominican House in Seattle. There she was not idle. She ministered as Nurse Coordinator for five Dominican Sisters at Bessie Burton Sullivan Skilled Nursing Facility, an Extended Care Facility, for five years, and also volunteered on St. Matthew Parish’s Outreach Committee and as a Board Member for Friends of the Orphans North West.

By 1996 there was only one Sister to care for at the Bessie Burton Residence. Sister Fidelis ministered to her and continued her service on the parish committee and Friends of the Orphans Board. She also provided transportation to the chapel where Mass was held for the nursing home Sisters and other residents at the Bessie Burton Residence. During this time her record shows that she performed miscellaneous services for Sister Philomena in Haiti which involved organizing the search for volunteers and means of providing funds.

Sister Fidelis concluded her autobiography, written in 2003, with this statement:

I have enjoyed my years as a Dominican religious and have never regretted my commitment in the service of the Lord. I have enjoyed my ministry with children, especially orphaned children. I have also enjoyed living and working with so many dedicated women religious.