In her over 40 years of involvement with Schools of the Sacred Heart San Francisco, Mary Mardel, RSCJ, held many roles: teacher, dean, Superior, mentor and dear friend. By virtue of her dedication to the school and its students, she was considered by many to be “the heart and soul of Broadway.” On October 4, 2022, at the age of 104, Sister Mardel passed away peacefully at Oakwood, the retirement center in Atherton for Sisters of the Religious of the Sacred Heart. A memorial service was held on Broadway, bringing together over 200 friends, alumni, past parents and 12 RSCJ. As we look back on her time with the school, it is clear that she filled her life — and the lives of those around her — with joy, vitality and love. Sr. Mardel, affectionately known as Be, was born on March 2, 1918, in Seattle, Washington. She and her family later moved to Los Altos, California, to find a climate better suited for Sr. Mardel’s asthma. For her last two years of high school, Sr. Mardel attended Convent of the Sacred Heart, Menlo, now called Sacred Heart Schools, Atherton. She discovered her vocation there, and in 1937, after two years at the San Francisco College for Women, she entered the Society of the Sacred Heart. During her noviceship, Sr. Mardel finished her bachelor’s degree, and in the summer of 1942, she began the first of four summers at Stanford University to earn her master’s degree in English.
LIFE AT BROADWAY
BEYOND BROADWAY
Sr. Mardel spent the first two decades of her religious life at
However, Sr. Mardel’s impact reaches far beyond Broadway. In
Schools of the Sacred Heart San Francisco. Her connection
1961, she became the Superior at Convent of the Sacred Heart
to the Flood Mansion began the first day the school opened
School in El Cajon, California, where she founded St. Madeleine
there. “I was told to come to 2222 Broadway when it opened,
Sophie’s Center, a program for children with developmental
so I had the honor of being here among the first in this house,”
disabilities. The center remains in operation today and serves
she shared in an interview. Over the years, she was a physics,
400 adults, ranging from recent high school graduates to
English, history and photography teacher, First Academic, Dean
senior citizens.
of Students and Superior of the school in 1966.
She was also a dedicated activist. In 1973, Sr. Mardel was among
In each of her roles, Sr. Mardel was both a champion of Sacred
a group of religious sisters on the picket line in Fresno with
Heart traditions and an agent of change. She is credited with
the United Farm Workers, protesting the treatment of migrant
leading the institution through the transition from operating as
farm workers and court injunctions prohibiting their right to
a division of the Society of the Sacred Heart to a sophisticated
protest years of poor pay and working conditions. Sr. Mardel
nonprofit with its own Board of Trustees, bringing laypersons
and roughly 30 other nuns and priests were arrested and
onto the Board for the first time in the late 1960s. She was the
spent two weeks in jail. During her active ministry, Sr. Mardel
driving force behind helping the school administration grow
also dedicated her time as a volunteer minister to individuals
with a formal management structure and oversaw significant
with AIDS, driving patients to appointments and keeping them
curricular changes, such as establishing computer programming
company and providing support near the end of their lives.
classes. After she was named Provincial of the Society’s
Sheila Hammond, RSCJ, remembered these acts of service
Western Province in 1972 and spent a sabbatical year abroad
in remarks at Sr. Mardel’s memorial service as “examples of
in England and Israel from 1978–79, Sr. Mardel returned to
courage, compassion, generosity and faithful love that I have
Broadway to launch the school’s first-ever capital campaign.
never forgotten.”
LEFT: Sr. Mardel greeting a current student at her 100th birthday party in the Flood Mansion on March 3, 2018. ABOVE: This headshot of Sr. Mardel from the 1960s is kept in the Convent & Stuart Hall Archives.
2022 PRESIDENT’S REPORT
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