LEGACY OF A LION

TWO GENERATIONS TRAVEL FROM CALIFORNIA TO ATTEND THE MOUNT

Mary Palmisano ’57, was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Her parents were from Chicago, but moved to Alberquerque when Mary’s mother developed Tuberculosis. Mary attended St. Vincent’s Academy, founded by Sister Blandina Segale, S.C. Mary has long been inspired by Sister Blandina’s adventurous spirit and commitment to organizing public school systems, and says she was key in spreading the Sisters of Charity’s mission work out West. In many ways it is thanks to Sister Blandina that Mary eventually ended up at the Mount, years later.

After St. Vincent’s Academy, Mary attended St. Mary’s High School, also founded by the Sisters of Charity. She earned a scholarship to the Regina School of Nursing at St. Joseph Hospital in Albuquerque, and then worked at a psychiatric hospital. Six months later, the Regina School asked Mary to come back as a nursing arts instructor. Mary realized she wanted more education. She talked to the Sisters of Charity and they offered her a working scholarship to the Mount.

Mary, already a registered nurse, enrolled at the Mount in 1955 as a junior to study public health nursing. She was the nurse in charge for Marian Hall and worked in cooperation with Sister Adele Clifford.

“I would be there to help the students when they got sick,” she says. “I hated field hockey, because somebody would always get hurt and I was carrying 22 units and I had a lot of studying to do!” She laughs.

Students ate at an assigned table for every meal with a Sister. Sister Adele was assigned to Mary’s table. Also at the table were education and music students, including Ann (Krauser) Bechtold ’57, and Phyllis (Zepf) Grannen ’57, women who are still dear friends to Mary today.

“And they were so delightful,” Mary says. “They sang! And I fit right in because music was my passion.”

Mary also played the piano and violin, and was in the Mount’s orchestra and choir, which sang with the Cincinnati Symphony.

After graduation, Mary’s first job was as a school nurse working with students grades one through eight at five schools in rural New Mexico. She married a teacher, Joseph Palmisano Jr., and they moved to Farmington, New Mexico. She got a job with the public health department and was charged with working with patients in San Juan County, including a Navajo reservation.

“I’ve had such wonderful experiences, and it’s due to what I learned at the Mount and the ability to get into that kind of field,” she says.

Mary then worked with the government, interviewing people who had been exposed to radium in the drinking water. Mary and her family moved to California where she subbed at hospitals. Years passed and her family (now five children) moved to Ventura, California, where Mary got a part-time job working at the county behavioral health department.

After the birth of their eighth child, Mary began working full-time at the department, for a total of 36 years. She also earned a master’s degree in marriage, family, and child counseling.

Retired, Mary still lives in Ventura. She enjoys taking communion to homebound people as a Eucharistic minister, singing in the choir, and spending time with her 28 grandchildren, including Aaron Palmisano, a sophomore at the Mount. How did Aaron, who also grew up in Ventura, end up choosing a university 2,200 miles away? Mary, of course.

“Since I’m from California, a lot of people have been asking, ‘What made you want to come out here?’ First off, the Mount is a great school,” Aaron says. “When I was making college decisions, I kept the Mount high on my list because I wanted to learn in a smaller environment working closely with my professors.”

The Seton Journal, 1957-05, Vol 34 - No 13.

Aaron first visited the Mount in October 2018, with his grandmother, Mary, and her two best friends and fellow Mount graduates—Phyllis and Ann.

“I went for a tour, met a lot of people, and I knew that the hospitality given here, just for a campus visit, couldn’t be found anywhere else,” Aaron says.

Aaron is majoring in chemistry and pursuing a minor in sustainability. He’s an RA, and a member of Student Association for Sports Management and Fellowship of Christian Athletes. He thinks about the friends his grandmother made at the Mount, and how she is still very close to them today.

“She talks and visits them frequently, which is kind of awesome,” Aaron says. “The friends she made turned out to be lifelong friends. If I don’t have friends like that, I’m doing something wrong. But it’s great to know that the type of people the Mount attracts are nothing short of extraordinary.”

As a Mount student, Aaron also looks back at his grandmother’s life with a new lens.

“Her career seemed to embrace ‘service to others’ as stated in the Mount’s mission statement,” he says. “That was truly what it was. And she services others not just through her career but also through her church and the values she embedded in our family.”

The Seton Journal, 1956-04, Vol 33 - No 11.

Aaron Palmisano in chemistry class.

Photo credit Mark Byron.

Sister Blandina Segale, S.C., dedicated her life to missionary service in the fields of public education, nursing, and social work out West, working and meeting with Native American tribes, Hispanic settlers, and even Billy the Kid. She’s credited with building many orphanages, hospitals, and schools. You can read more about Sister Blandina in “At the End of the Santa Fe Trail”, a journal written by Sister Blandina about her time in Colorado and New Mexico from 1872 to 1892.