Mary“Be” Mardel, RSCJ 1918–2022 The Heart and Soul of Broadway

BY CLAIRE CARLANDER COMMUNICATIONS ASSOCIATE

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

Sr. Mardel spent the first two decades of her religious life at Schools of the Sacred Heart San Francisco. Her connection to the Flood Mansion began the first day the school opened there. “I was told to come to 2222 Broadway when it opened, so I had the honor of being here among the first in this house,” she shared in an interview. Over the years, she was a physics, English, history and photography teacher, First Academic, Dean of Students and Superior of the school in 1966.

In each of her roles, Sr. Mardel was both a champion of Sacred Heart traditions and an agent of change. She is credited with leading the institution through the transition from operating as a division of the Society of the Sacred Heart to a sophisticated nonprofit with its own Board of Trustees, bringing laypersons onto the Board for the first time in the late 1960s. She was the driving force behind helping the school administration grow with a formal management structure and oversaw significant curricular changes, such as establishing computer programming classes. After she was named Provincial of the Society’s Western Province in 1972 and spent a sabbatical year abroad in England and Israel from 1978–79, Sr. Mardel returned to Broadway to launch the school’s first-ever capital campaign.

Beyond Broadway

However, Sr. Mardel’s impact reaches far beyond Broadway. In 1961, she became the Superior at Convent of the Sacred Heart School in El Cajon, California, where she founded St. Madeleine Sophie’s Center, a program for children with developmental disabilities. The center remains in operation today and serves 400 adults, ranging from recent high school graduates to senior citizens.

She was also a dedicated activist. In 1973, Sr. Mardel was among a group of religious sisters on the picket line in Fresno with the United Farm Workers, protesting the treatment of migrant farm workers and court injunctions prohibiting their right to protest years of poor pay and working conditions. Sr. Mardel and roughly 30 other nuns and priests were arrested and spent two weeks in jail. During her active ministry, Sr. Mardel also dedicated her time as a volunteer minister to individuals with AIDS, driving patients to appointments and keeping them company and providing support near the end of their lives.

Sheila Hammond, RSCJ, remembered these acts of service in remarks at Sr. Mardel’s memorial service as “examples of courage, compassion, generosity and faithful love that I have never forgotten.”

A Vibrant Retirement

In 2004, Sr. Mardel retired and began residence at the Oakwood Retirement Center in Atherton. In her retirement years, Sr. Mardel continued her active involvement with Convent & Stuart Hall. She often attended the school’s annual Mass of the Holy Spirit and other special events, remaining keenly interested in school news and affairs. As a speaker for the Class of 2020 commencement ceremony, Sr. Mardel underscored the school’s continued significance for her personally and for her fellow RSCJ. Although RSCJ had not been living or teaching at the school during the graduating students’ years on campus, she noted, “I want to assure you that we have been very present with you, both in our prayer and in our love and our interest. … We pray every morning, day after day; we pray aloud for you, our students.”

Convent & Stuart Hall has strived to pay tribute to Sr. Mardel’s remarkable contributions to the school and institute systems that uphold her legacy and carry on her progress. In 2014, the school dedicated the chapel in Sr. Mardel’s name and established an endowed fund in her honor to support the physical integrity of the chapel and fund mission-inspired activities. In a letter of thanks to President Ann Marie Krejcarek, Sr. Mardel wrote, “There is no way I can tell you what that chapel means in my life. Ever since 1940 to the present, it has always been one of the most sacred places to me. Since yesterday, so many memories have been flooding into my mind — events, graces, precious moments — all connected with that chapel.”

It was this chapel that Sr. Mardel later recalled as the last gathering place of her family before her brother Charles left for World War II and never returned home. Sharing this poignant memory at Sr. Mardel’s memorial service, Dr. Krejcarek added, “So this place held her family. … Her life fills this chapel.”

In 2016, filming began for a multi-part film series highlighting Sr. Mardel’s life and her stories from the school’s early days on Broadway. Sr. Mardel spent several days on campus filming, visiting classes and reminiscing about her time at Convent & Stuart Hall. That same year, Sr. Mardel, who was influential in creating the school’s archives, returned to Broadway to help organize and categorize the records. This work facilitated the later relocation and digitization of the archives, ensuring that the invaluable resource she instituted would remain preserved and accessible for future generations.

Two years later, over 400 alumni, faculty and friends gathered on Broadway to celebrate Sr. Mardel’s 100th birthday. After a rousing rendition of “Happy Birthday to You,” Sr. Mardel told the guests, “There is so much love in this room that it’s tangible. Now it’s up to us to go out and give that love to others.”

She continued: “I want to leave you with one of my favorite quotations from Saint John of the Cross. He said, ‘In the evening of life, we will be judged on love.’”

Mother Mardel Remembered

Four weeks after Sr. Mardel’s passing, a memorial Mass was held on November 5 at the Flood Mansion. Flowers adorned the Main Hall and the Mary Mardel, RSCJ Chapel, where, fittingly, the service was held. The gathering brought together RSCJ, alumni, current and former employees, past parents and longtime friends.

The chapel was filled with the sounds of bagpipes and choral music as Fr. John Whitney, SJ, conducted the ceremony for over 200 guests. A stirring mix of laughter and tears marked the occasion as guests remembered the joy and love Sr. Mardel spread to every person she encountered. “To know Be was to know to be loved and also to know what a purpose in life was,” Dr. Krejcarek said in her opening words of the service. Reflecting on over 50 years of involvement with Convent & Stuart Hall as a parent and friend, then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi shared: “For our family, [Sr. Mardel’s] Sacred Heart value, which she said we all are connected by, taught us gratitude for when we are blessed and strength when we are challenged. And she worked to do the same for every family in the community.” Motioning to those gathered in the chapel, former Speaker Pelosi noted that “[Sr. Mardel’s] legacy is seated here. … This legacy continues to echo in the laughter that we hear here and the memories of the students.”

The legacy former Speaker Pelosi spoke of was later evidenced by remarks from alumni. “She has loved her students with a mother’s love,” Brenda MacLean ’63 said. “Up until her very last years, Mother Mardel would greet a long-ago alum, address her by name, inquire about her family and her fellow classmates, and ask her for updates on her present life.”

In a moving address, Senator Dianne Feinstein ’51 spoke about her time as a student of Sr. Mardel. “I owe a very special debt of gratitude to this wonderful religious person because she helped make me what I am today, and will never forget it, and I will never forget my years at Broadway,” Sen. Feinstein said. “Ladies and gentlemen, this institution has made this Jewish woman what she is today, a United States senator.”

The words of gratitude shared at Sr. Mardel’s memorial reflected her vast and immeasurable impact on the students, friends and social causes to which she committed her life. In a letter to the community following Sr. Mardel’s passing, Dr. Krejcarek wrote that, like a garden, “Be tended to generations of students and Sacred Heart school leaders, seeing and nurturing each one’s strength and heart with her love, fortitude and courage.” Convent & Stuart Hall owes Sr. Mardel immense thanks for the care and support she so ardently provided to the school. Her light, love, radiant smile and tireless contributions to Convent & Stuart Hall will be greatly missed and diligently remembered.