Maryknoll Sister Nancy Thomas
Longtime teacher spent decades in Hawaii, California schools
Hawaii Catholic Herald
Maryknoll Sister Nancy Thomas, who spent her childhood years in Hawaii and later returned to teach at schools across the state for 20 years, died March 3 at the Maryknoll Sisters Center in Maryknoll, New York. She was 96.
Sister Thomas was born on Nov. 8, 1927, in Washington, D.C., though her family moved often due to her father’s career in the Army. One place they called home was Schofield Barracks on Oahu; while in Hawaii, she attended public and Catholic grade schools including Maryknoll School in Honolulu.
The attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 led to her family’s evacuation back to the mainland, where they ended up in Baltimore, Maryland. Sister Thomas attended high school and junior college there, receiving an associate of arts degree in 1947.
Later that year she entered the Maryknoll Novitiate in Valley Park, Missouri, where she made her first profession of vows in 1950. She returned to the East Coast and graduated from Maryknoll Teachers College in Maryknoll, New York, with a bachelor of education degree in 1952.
After graduation, Sister Thomas received her first mission assignment — back to Hawaii, where she made her final profession of vows in 1953 and taught at schools across the state. She was an educator at St. Ann School, Kaneohe; Maryknoll School; St. Anthony School, Wailuku; and St. Augustine School in Waikiki.
Sister Thomas stayed in Hawaii for 20 years, returning to New York in 1972.
Her mission assignments after Hawaii took her from New York to Bolivia and ultimately to Gilroy, California, where she spent four decades. She remained active in religious education and also worked closely with people experiencing homelessness, poverty and substance abuse, as well as with survivors of sexual abuse and domestic violence.
Sister Thomas returned to the Maryknoll Sisters Center in New York in 2022.