Sister Maria Therese Ruckel Passes At 92

Published on December 22, 2014, 10:18 am
FavoriteLoadingAdd to favorites 2 mins

Sister Maria Therese Ruckel, 92, a loving, caring educator who taught science for nearly 20 years at St. Joseph by-the-Sea High School, died Wednesday in the Convent of Mary the Queen, Yonkers, where she had resided for four years.

After completing her novitiate and making her vows at Mount St. Vincent’s, the Bronx, the Bronx native became a lifelong educator, teaching in several schools in Manhattan, including the Sacred Heart School, St. Joseph’s Academy, Immaculate Conception School and Holy Cross Academy.

She also taught at the Academy of Mt. St. Vincent, Tuxedo, N.Y., the Resurrection School, Rye, NY, and St. Raymond’s School in Bronx, before arriving at St. Joseph by-the-Sea, Huguenot, in 1978. Sister Therese taught science there until 1997, when she retired and moved into Mt. St. Vincent Convent, Riverdale. In 2010, she moved to the Convent of Mary the Queen.

Sister Therese held a bachelor’s degree in French from the College of Mount St. Vincent and a master’s degree in secondary education from Fordham University, Bronx.

“She was a honey — she was there for everyone,” said Sister Betty Kolb, the administrator of the Convent of Mary the Queen. “She was warm and loving, very kind, hard-working, compassionate and full of fun.”

A very prayerful woman, it was Sister Therese’s love of God that gave her the strength to be the loving woman woman she was, Sister Betty said.

Sister Therese is survived by her sister-in-law, Margaret Ruckel, and several nieces.

The funeral mass will be Saturday at 9:30 a.m. in the Convent of Mary the Queen and burial will be in St. Joseph’s Cemetery, both Yonkers. Arrangements are being handled by the Flynn Memorial Home, also Yonkers.

 

Jonas Bronck is the pseudonym under which we publish and manage the content and operations of The Bronx Daily.™ | Bronx.com - the largest daily news publication in the borough of "the" Bronx with over 1.5 million annual readers. Publishing under the alias Jonas Bronck is our humble way of paying tribute to the person, whose name lives on in the name of our beloved borough.