October 26, 2018

Elms College trustees name Sister Kathleen Keating president emerita

REGIONAL
Staff report

(IObserve photo/courtesy of Elms College)

CHICOPEE – The board of trustees of the College of Our Lady of the Elms voted Oct. 19 to grant the title of president emerita to Sister of St. Joseph Kathleen C. Keating, a 1952 alumna, in recognition of the lasting impact Sister Keating has had on the college.

A native of Springfield, Sister Keating was installed as the seventh president of Elms College in 1994. During her tenure, from 1994 to 2001, Elms College underwent extensive changes. In 1997, the college voted to admit male students to all programs of the college, which helped stabilize a declining enrollment. In addition, the college added four new undergraduate majors and one new master’s degree program.

Sister Keating more than doubled the school’s endowment from $2.3 million to $5.8 million, and oversaw various campus improvement projects, including the building of the Maguire Center. She also oversaw the establishment of the Irish and Polish cultural centers on the Elms College campus.

A 1952 graduate of the college, Sister Keating received a master’s degree from Villanova University and a doctoral degree from Fordham University. She joined the Sisters of St. Joseph in 1953.

She worked as a teacher at the former St. Joseph High School in North Adams and was assistant professor of history at Elms College from 1966 to 1975. She also served as chair of the college’s Division of Social Sciences.

From 1975 to 1978, she was president of the National Assembly of Women Religious in Chicago, and she served as president of the congregation of Sisters of St. Joseph of Springfield from 1979 to 1987. From 1989 to 1993, she ministered in Nicaragua as an associate member of the Maryknoll Sisters, working as a pastoral minister and a professor of English at the Jesuit University of Central America in the city of Managua.

She received the Elms Distinguished Alumna Award in 1983, and a number of other national and regional awards over the years.

“Sister Kathleen’s contributions to Elms College are not relegated in the past – her wisdom is very much sought after in the present, as I have turned to her counsel on more than one occasion for decisions that require a firm grasp of the college’s history and the guidance of one who has traveled the road before,” said Elms College President Harry E. Dumay. “Everything Sister Kathleen accomplished on behalf of this college was done in the service of God and in the spirit of the charism of the Sisters of St. Joseph, ‘to unite neighbor with neighbor and neighbor with God, without distinction.’

“We are thankful for Sister Kathleen’s vision, determination, and the strong example she has set of tireless service,” Dumay said.