Sister Rosa Carmichael, 94, a nurse and educator
Sister Rosa Carmichael, 94, a nurse and a member of the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia for 70 years, died of congestive heart failure in Assisi House, Aston, where she had lived since 2012.
Sister Rosa Carmichael, 94, a nurse and a member of the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia for 70 years, died of congestive heart failure in Assisi House, Aston, where she had lived since 2012.
Born Anne Veronica Carmichael, she was a graduate of J.W. Hallahan Catholic Girls' High School.
She became Sister Rosa with the profession of her first vows in 1946. After the Vatican II Council in the early 1960s, nuns were permitted to revert to their given names, but Sister Rosa decided not to.
Her sibling, Sister Mary Teresa Carmichael, joined the order at the same time and currently resides at Assisi House.
Sister Rosa studied at St. Joseph Hospital in Baltimore, where she became a registered nurse. She later earned a bachelor of science degree in nursing from the Catholic University of America in Washington, and a master's degree in nursing education and administration from St. John's University in New York City.
From 1968 to 1995, Sister Rosa worked in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia as a nursing department instructor at Neumann University.
Before that, she served in the Diocese of Wilmington as a head nurse and supervisor at St. Francis Hospital. She was an instructor in St. Francis Hospital School of Nursing from the late 1950s through 1961, when she became director of nursing. She stayed until 1968.
Sister Rosa also worked at various times at Catholic hospitals in Allentown and Trenton.
Sister Ann Marie Slavin, her colleague in the religious order, said she had known Sister Rosa since the two were in high school. "I always thought of her as the perfect nurse - calm, patient, and gentle - whether she was dealing with patients, student nurses, or employees.
"In later years, when I got to know her as a member of our congregation, I realized that these qualities were woven into the very fabric of who she was," Sister Ann Marie said.
Besides her one sibling, Sister Rosa is survived by cousins.
Services were March 23.
Donations may be made to the Sisters of St. Francis Foundation, 609 S. Convent Rd., Aston, Pa. 19014.
610-313-8102