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Sister Sharon McGuire, OP 1943-2016

In wonder and awe we become a people illumined.

Sister Sharon McGuire was born on September 14, 1943, in Detroit. She was the first and only girl of the four children born to Robert and Jean (Melvin) McGuire. In her autobiography, Sister Sharon shared some significant memories of her early years.

The day my father appeared in the doorway, I believe home from the war, is still

a sharp image in my memory. It is the first remembrance I have of him, and the concomitant feelings were both surprise and delight. During the time my father was in the war, WW II, my mother had to work and I had to go to nursery school.

My grandmother really was the weaver of the family fabric. [She] had a unique understanding and appreciation of the exploits of children and of the bizarre but honest way children express their view of the world. She has been a great influence on my life. [When I was five] my first brother arrived and I was ecstatic. Possibly being the oldest and only child for five years has influenced my present love for periods of solitude.

Sister Sharon’s memory of elementary education was mostly about confinement and having to sit in straight rows. What she liked most was reading and recess because she was free to move about and explore. When the family moved from Livonia to Farmington, she finished grade school at St. Agatha and then attended St. Joseph Academy for her first two years of high school. During these two years she changed her attitude toward school because “it fostered and even valued creative expression through whatever mode. Even math became intriguing as it cut loose from rote work and English became more literary, less diagrammatical” She continued to her enjoy her junior and senior years at Our Lady of Sorrows, where she graduated in June 1961. Her decision to enter religious life was not a sudden one because, as she said, “I gave my parents five years to adjust to the idea. They were mainly puzzled about my decision.” So, with the assistance of Sister Joan Delaplane, she entered the postulate on September 8, 1961, and at Reception received the name Sister Mary Dolores. After profession, Sister Sharon was assigned to teach in two elementary schools from August 1963 to June 1971: St. Patrick in Joliet, Illinois, for two years, and St. Vincent de Paul in Fort Wayne, Indiana, for six years. These were her only assigned ministries because the General Chapter of Renewal after Vatican II initiated the process of open placement.

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From 1971 to 1974, Sister Sharon studied and worked as a teaching assistant at Wayne State University while earning her master’s degree in physical education. She also began exploring several ministry options. She wrote:

Because I feel called to, in some way, minister among the afflicted, [I would like] to live among simple people, learning their values and point of view [and] engaging in a mutual exchange of goods.

After reading a notice inviting Sisters to work with Cesar Chavez, Sister Sharon headed west and worked for over two years at the United Farm Workers Center in Keene, California, as a community organizer and fund raiser. Her next migrant farmworker experience was at the United Farm Workers Center in Los Angeles, where she did office work and taught physical education for almost a year. Of her experience, she wrote, “Good intercultural experience struggling alongside of farmworkers [but] I need to learn Spanish.” Her third experience with migrant farmworkers became available in 1980, when, for three years, she participated in outreach programs and efforts to organize a housing project for the farmworkers in Indiantown, Florida. By 1983, her experiences in California and Florida had convinced her that she needed medical skills for this ministry and the best option for her would be to enroll in a Bachelor of Science in Nursing program. She enrolled in Barry University’s nursing program in 1983 and, four years later, completed the undergraduate program in nursing, finished the required field experience at Jackson Memorial Hospital and Visiting Nurses Association in Miami and, during her final years at Barry, taught undergraduate courses as a clinical instructor. In August 1987 she received a Professional Nurse Traineeship Award from the University of Miami that covered the cost of her tuition for their graduate nursing program. Two years later she received her master’s degree in nursing. One of her summer field experiences during this period of graduate studies was with the Colorado Migrant Health Program, where she worked as a Community Health Nurse. By this time, she was also fluent in Spanish. For the next nine years, Sister Sharon ministered as a family nurse practitioner in El Paso, Texas. Her first five years were at the San Vicente Family Health Center, sponsored by the Daughters of Charity Health System. She then accepted a position at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), to be the coordinator of their newly established community health nursing major. She wrote the following about her decision to accept UTEP’s offer:

With my long time interest in teaching in addition to my teaching experience, I view this move as a wonderful opportunity to address the critical primary care and prevention health care needs so pervasive on this border. What better way to multiply my own efforts than to prepare nurses for advanced clinical proactive experiences in primary care settings.

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After almost four years at UTEP, Sister Sharon returned to California in 1998 to enroll in the doctoral nursing program at the University of San Diego. Three years later she received her PhD in nursing and continued to teach in the University’s Nursing Department as an assistant professor for the next six years. In 2008, Siena Heights University invited Sister Sharon to serve as a consultant for their nursing program. She eventually joined the faculty and taught for the next three years. During her last two years of ministry, she lived in Adrian and taught courses through the Nursing Education Online Program at Walden University in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Because of failing health, Sister Sharon retired in 2015 and returned to Adrian, where she died on May 17, 2016, at the age of seventy-two. During the Wake Service the following remembrances were given: Sister Sharon Spanbauer, Nurse Practitioner, spoke for the nursing community at Siena Heights University. She said:

Sharon had many attributes which made nursing a perfect choice as a career and ministry. Her energy and outgoing personality gave her stamina for the journey. Her empathy drove her to provide care that went beyond the physical needs of each person. But what distinguished her later years was her intelligence and thirst for acquiring and sharing knowledge. She was a scholar exemplar and a professor extraordinaire! If you have never read one of her scholarly articles, I invite you to do so – for [for example] “Borders, Centers, and Margins: Critical Landscapes for Migrant Health.”

Sister Maurine Barzantni shared her memory about one part of Sister Sharon’s ministry:

For several years Sharon organized an overseas experience for the graduating nurse practitioners of the University of San Diego. She brought them to a rural community in the Dominican Republic that had little water and electricity and no health services. The families were reluctant to go to any office much less those of a doctor. But when Sharon and her students arrived, people lined up for medical attention because word got out that these doctors treated each person with respect.

Sharon spoke Spanish fluently but she never became the spokesperson for the group, allowing the students to practice their classroom Spanish. She let her students resolve their own reactions to what we would consider unacceptable situations like untreated infections and unattended child births. Sharon had a compassionate, calm approach to human suffering. Her students reflected her values.

Sister Sharon Weber, Academic Vice President of Siena Heights University, spoke for the University’s Award Committee and announced that Sister Sharon had been chosen to be this year’s recipient of its outstanding Alumni Award. She said, “Sharon’s

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reflections on her experiences with peoples relegated to the margins of societies led her to move into teaching as a way to inspire others to develop their skills in order to serve those most in need.” Family members also spoke. Her brother Mike thanked everyone for their care and said, “Having shared this experience with you I know now she chose the right path.” Joe mentioned that his Aunt Sharon had the courage of her convictions. She always had heart for what she believed in. Sister Joan Delaplane’s homily was based on the readings1 Sister Sharon had chosen for her funeral. Here is an excerpt of Sister Joan’s message.

One of our Dominican brothers said: the beatitudes are not a Christian version of the commandments. They are not asking us to do or not to do anything. The Beatitudes are in the present tense. Blessed ARE you peacemakers, you mourners, poor in spirit, meek! And, yes, I believe Jesus said: “Blessed are you, Sharon, for your hunger and thirst for righteousness for his poor ones on the margins.” That was her passion. It was her grace and her gift, especially to those precious years of ministry with the migrants in California and El Paso, Texas. With which of the BE attitudes have you been graced that makes Jesus look upon you today, smile and call you blessed?

1 2Timothy 4:1-8, Matthew 5:1-10

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Left: Sister Sharon McGuire, OP, with her grand-aunt, Sister Mary Ellen Melvin, SC. Right: Sisters Virginia (Ginny) King, OP, left, and Sharon (right) with the Prioress of the Dominican community at Caleruega, Spain, 1993.

Left: Graduation photo from Our Lady of Sorrows High School, Farmington, Michigan. Right: With her parents, Jean and Bob McGuire, El Paso, Texas.

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Left: Sister Sharon, third from left, with her dissertation committee at the University of San Diego. Right: At a protest in San Diego, California, against the war in Iraq.

Right: 2012 Golden Jubilee Crowd: back row, from left, Sisters Sharon McGuire, Carol Ann Elya, Sharon Weber, and Attracta Kelly (Prioress), and, front row, from left, Sisters Mary Anne McElmurry, Luisa Campos, Cecilia Nguyen, and Kathleen McGrail.