SISTER ANN THOMAS GRIFFIN
1913-2007

“As I review the story of my life, I am aware of the constant and loving care and direction of God through these years.” This is the last sentence in Sister Ann Thomas Griffin’s autobiography. Although short, it is full of meaning

Baptized Anna Rita, she was a treasured Christmas gift, born in Chicago on December 26, 1913, into the family of Thomas and Ann (Mulcahy) Griffin, and welcomed by a brother (Tom) and sister (Dot). Within the first year of Anna’s life, Thomas Griffin’s death brought tragedy to the family. They had been living on the west side of Chicago, and now the bereaved widow decided to return to the south side to be nearer to her parents and siblings. She was helped in this move by Michael Connery, a relative and the father of two future Adrian Dominicans, Sisters Michael Joseph and Marie Camilla. After the move, the Griffins were members of St. Columbanus Parish, and the children attended St. Columbanus Elementary School with the Adrian Dominican Sisters.

Anna went on to Aquinas High School, again with the Adrian Dominican Sisters. In her autobiography she wrote, “My desire to become an Adrian Dominican grew and flourished in my junior and senior high school years.” These were the Great Depression years, however, and in order to help their mother, who was raising the family alone, after their day in school both Anna and Dot reported to full-time jobs with the telephone company. Their salaries were needed, and Anna felt that she could not leave the family until the situation became better. But when she spoke of her desire to enter religious life, there were no objections from either her mother or siblings.

She graduated from high school in June 1931, and during the Christmas season, on December 29, three days after her eighteenth birthday, she entered the postulate at Adrian. On New Year’s Day she found herself bound for St. Alphonsus in Dearborn to assist in the middle grades “under dear Sister Ursula [O’Neill].” She returned to Adrian for the summer, where with her group she received the habit and her religious name (taken in tribute to her parents and brother) on August 2, 1932.

Mother Augustine Walsh had died the previous January, and Sister Mary Gerald Barry, who had been the novice mistress and of special help to Mother Augustine, was now responsible for administering the Congregation. These were hard times for the young women in the novitiate, as they experienced their training under the leadership of several different sisters. During the General Chapter of 1933, at which Sister Gerald was elected Mother General, they became the first novices to spend time at Kelleys Island, so that “there would be space at the Motherhouse for the sisters attending the Chapter.”

Sister Ann Thomas’s group was the first to profess vows to the newly-elected Mother Mary Gerald, and the profession ceremony took place on August 8, 1933. For the following seventeen years, Sister Ann Thomas ministered in Michigan schools. Within a short time of the profession ceremony, she was in a car bound for St. Mary in New Baltimore, where she taught in the middle grades, as well as some high school classes. After three years, she became a junior high teacher at St. Mary in Royal Oak.

In June 1939, as a result of summer study in Adrian, Siena Heights College (now University) awarded her a bachelor’s degree with a major in mathematics and minor in science. The fall of that year saw her as a full-time student at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and in June 1940 she received a master’s degree in mathematics. For the next eight years, she taught math and science on the high school level at St. Joseph Academy in Adrian. At the wake, Sister Carol Denise Koenig remembered those years:

With the death of Sister Ann Thomas, an era has passed for us who attended St. Joseph Academy in the ‘40s. . . . Sister Ann was a sophomore homeroom moderator and our math teacher, and she was an excellent teacher. I’m more inclined to like English and Literature, but she talked me into four years of high school math. I’m still not sure how she managed that!

When she was around, we worked. We learned to clean floors. . . . Bathrooms never shone so much as under her tutelage. We found out what it really meant to scrub. I am sure it helped us all in the future, no matter what vocation we chose.

In 1942 Sister Ann Thomas’s mother died, leaving what Sister described as “a void in my life,” and six months later her brother became a “career Army man.” In 1948 she moved to St. Alphonsus High School in Dearborn for the second time, this time teaching religion and drafting in addition to math and science. During the summers, she studied at Providence College in Providence, Rhode Island, and in 1952 received a second master’s degree, this time in theology.

In 1951 she spent a year in California, living at St. Louis Bertrand Convent in Oakland and teaching at Bishop O’Dowd High School. The next year she returned to Michigan, and taught at Visitation High School in Detroit, as well as administering the cafeteria and serving as assistant principal. During these years she was also taking evening classes at Wayne State University for her doctoral degree. In 1958 she was assigned as a full-time student at Wayne State, and in June 1959 was awarded a doctorate in education with a major in guidance and counseling.

Her assignment for 1959 sent her to Florida to teach theology, education, and mathematics at Barry College (now University) in Miami for fourteen years. On December 12, 1969, she was honored in a TV ad by Commercial Bank and Trust Company.

The Name in the News today is Sister Ann Thomas, chairman of the education department at Barry College and winner of this year’s outstanding member award of the Florida Personnel and Guidance Association. She has also been named to the state committee for exceptional child education. Congratulations to Sister Ann Thomas, the Name in the News today.

In the September 1971 issue of Impact, a publication of the Leadership Training Institute of which she had become a member, she was profiled. The profile contained an impressive list of her memberships in various organizations, and of several articles that she had written that were published in the Newman Review.

She then spent a sabbatical year of post-doctoral study and as a visiting professor at Florida State University in Tallahassee.

In 1974 she accepted a position as pastoral associate at St. Elizabeth Parish in Boone, North Carolina, and as campus minister at Appalachian State University. She ministered there for ten years. She wrote that in a strongly Christian but non-Catholic community, she found her main function to be “making the Catholic presence known.” She served as treasurer of the local ministerial association for four years, and as president for two years. Her election as president in 1978 was publicized in the January 16 edition of the Watauga Democrat. She also served as treasurer and secretary of RAM (Resort Area Ministry) an ecumenical group that serves vacationers on the ski slopes and in summer camps. In 1980 she again endured a bout of cancer, more surgery, and came through it well

Her autobiography contains an awesome list of boards, committees, and other organizations on which she served, and she writes of her preaching opportunities in Methodist, Lutheran, and Episcopal churches, at the local high school, and on the local radio station. It also speaks of the celebration of her Golden Jubilee; and her six-month ministry as administrator of the parish when the pastor took a leave of absence to study. In January 1983 the church burned; she evaluated the damage, and arranged to hold services in one of the University auditoriums. Needless to say, she was happy to welcome the pastor back when his study time was completed. About this ministerial experience she wrote, “My ministry of ten years in the mountains was truly a joyful experience, and made me aware of the abiding presence of God.” She left in 1984, and was glad to hear that in 1987 the parish was able to erect a beautiful church called St. Elizabeth of the Hill Country.

She wrote:

I have traveled extensively. Due to the generosity of my brother Tom and my sister Dot, I have seen much of the world. All of my religious life, I have been truly blessed with my family support. I shared with Dot and her husband, Al Schmitt, the joy of being “Sister Auntie” to their six girls and now to 13 grandnieces and nephews. I suffered great sorrow at Al’s death in 1953 and my brother Tom’s death in 1989.

When Sister Ann Thomas left Boone, her leaving was publicized in the North Carolina Catholic. She returned to Adrian, and ministered in the Finance Office, the Weber Center Shop, and at Siena Heights College. She lived in Regina Residence until 1996, and then in the Dominican Life Center/Maria until her death on August 15, 2007, the Feast of the Assumption.

A wake-remembrance service for Sister Ann Thomas took place in St. Catherine Chapel on August 17. Present were many of Sister Ann Thomas’s nieces, grandnieces, nephews, and her many Dominican friends. Sister Joan Sustersic, Prioress of the Holy Rosary Mission Chapter, welcomed those present and extended sympathy. She summarized Sister Ann Thomas’s life and ministry, and spoke of her years at Maria.

Here in Adrian, she was simply our prayerful Dominican sister with a wonderful sense of humor and an aptitude for offering appreciation and making one feel good. . . .Her health had been gradually declining. Recently, it was difficult for her to get around and she was confined to bed. She still maintained her sense of humor and her philosophical outlook on life. . . . She knew she was getting ready to meet her Lord—and she was ready.

Sue Wooten, a former student at Appalachian State University, sent a fax praising her “personal” Dominican sister, Sister Ann Griffin. She wrote of the influence that Sister Ann Thomas played in her life, especially at the time of her marriage, and ended with these words:

I am only one of the college students whose lives were bettered by the influence of Sister Ann Griffin. We called her Apple Annie, at the Encounter with Christ Retreats.
As we approach our twentieth wedding anniversary, we can rejoice that my husband is now a devout Catholic, our daughter a singer in the Life Teen Ministry, and our son a weekly altar server at that same Life Teen Mass. Thanks, Sister Ann!

Sister Nancyann Turner also sent a fax. She wrote in part:

My niece, Bronwyn Muldoon, attended Appalachian State in the late eighties. When I visited her there, I often heard about this wonderful campus minister who had been there for about ten years. Here we were in sort of “redneck” territory, and yet Sister Ann was loved, respected, and known as a gracious, hospitable, and supportive presence on this campus. She preached by her presence, and her portrait still hangs in the campus ministry center.

Mary Catherine Beyschlag Owny, sister of Sister Rose Catherine Beyschlag who died in 1987, sent a fax to the wake. Both Beyschlag daughters were students at St. Joseph Academy during Sister Ann Thomas’s time there. Mary Catherine now lives in North Palm Beach, Florida. In part she wrote:

The life of an Academy nun was not easy. . . . I was sophomore class president, she our homeroom teacher. Sister Ann Thomas taught me algebra and chemistry. She was intent on teaching the subject, and we learned. It is most likely why I always taught math and science.

I do believe that I shall always remember this: Sister Ann Thomas was so human. She loved me, and I knew it. She would laugh, eat, bundle up (as we did) while walking that endless mile every Sunday (freezing or not), and she would “kid” with my dad. She was so very human. She embodied the words, “The glory of God is (wo)man fully alive.”

Dorothy Russell, Pat Hurt, Barbara Gengelf, and Rita Wiley, Sister Ann Thomas’s nieces, went up to the microphone together, and spoke of their remembrances of “Sister Auntie.” Some of what they said:

When we visited them, they would make us sit and rest while listening to Father Fulton Sheen. The next year we came back and made the sisters who were living there watch the Mickey Mouse Club with us.

Our special thing from Sister Auntie is that she loved our dad dearly. She made sure that we always held him in our hearts. That is one of the things I thank her for most.

Growing up as a niece of Sister Auntie, I told her that I needed prayers. She was great fun; she was great to be with. Of course, occasionally she had a bad day. To know that sisters were human was a wonderful thing to know.

When I think of Sister Auntie, I also think of food. Whether it was Fannie May chocolates or the delicious desserts she loved to make, wonderful meals with steak and baked potatoes—it was a joy the way she shared memories and food. She taught us about the Eucharist, God’s food, and brought it alive for us from the time we were very young.

Sister Ann Thomas’s funeral liturgy took place on August 18. Father Roland Calvert, OSFS, was the presider and homilist. Father ended by saying, “Sister Ann Thomas rejoins her beloved parents, family, and many friends and enjoys the gift of life that lasts forever. We rejoice with her.”