Sister Mary Grace Krieger, M.M. from St. Louis, MO will be celebrating her 70th Jubilee this year.
Before joining the Maryknoll Sisters in 1948 from St. Louis, MO, Mary Grace Krieger had earned her B.A. in Education from Harris Teacher College, and taught in the St. Louis public schools. Assigned to the Philippines in 1951, she served ten years as an elementary school teacher in Manila and assistant high school principal in Jimenez.
Her talents were tapped to serve six years as assistant novice mistress in both New York and Topsfield, MA. She received her Masters degree in adult education from Boston University and lived nine years in Roxbury, MA, supervising six community organizers in school and communications programs in African-American areas of Boston.
She also worked with the federation of three parochial schools in the African-American community. These years were her “most complete immersion in another culture….and the active promotion of understanding another culture.” In 1976, she traveled to Nigeria to help Bishop Patrick Ekpu to organize a chancery office and to assist in the formation of a new Nigerian religious community.
In Dallas, TX, Sister Mary Grace was an organizational consultant at an African-American school and coordinator of an education program for the Dallas Association of Mentally Challenged Citizens.
Returning full circle to St. Louis (1980-1990), she ministered as the executive secretary and director of the Catholic Commission of the Handicapped (now the Catholic Office of Disability Ministry), educating for self-determination, inclusion. and understanding.
For five and a half years, Sister Mary Grace served as director of Maryknoll Mission Archives, which she considered a wonderful experience of collaboration.
Sister Mary Grace lived in Yonkers, NY as part of the Eastern Region. She was active in the Maryknoll Affiliate Group and also Pax Christi. In 2012, she was assigned to Maryknoll, New York where she continues to be active in Pax Christi and doing projects for the Congregation.