Maryknoll, NY: Sister Marilyn Jean Graf, M.M. died on December 20, 2024 at the Maryknoll Sisters Center, Maryknoll, NY. She was 97 years old and a Maryknoll Sister for 68 years.
On February 1, 1927, Marilyn Jean Graf was born in Joliet, IL to Margaret Passinger Graf and Aloysius Graf. She had one younger sister, Joan who has predeceased her; her three nephews, Michael, Paul and Thomas Pejsa, survive her.
From 1940-1944, Sister Marilyn Jean attended St. Francis Academy High School in Joliet, IL. She earned a certificate from the Field Business School at Oak Park, IL in 1946 a three-month secretarial program.
She entered the Maryknoll Sisters at Maryknoll, NY on September 2, 1956 from St. Alphonsus Parish in Lemont, IL. She pronounced her First Profession of Vows on June 24, 1959 at Maryknoll, NY and her Final Vows on June 24, 1965 at Colegio Monte Maria in Guatemala.
For one year in 1959-1960, she used her secretarial skills in Central Administration at the Maryknoll Sisters Center. In 1960, she received an assignment for the Mexico-Guatemala Region for Colegio Monte Maria in Guatemala where she taught commercial subjects until 1965. From there she did office work at the Maryknoll Society for four years. Sister’s next assignment was to Koror, Palau to the Mindszenty High School where she taught five classes a day of English and religion plus commercial subjects until 1973.
From 1973 to 1978 she was in a secretarial position at the Maryknoll Society. She returned to Guatemala to the Colegio Monte Maria to teach once again and to serve as homeroom teacher for the junior class from 1979-1988. In February 1989, Marilyn Jean asked for Family Leave to care for her ailing mother, in Lemont, IL.
In 1990, Marilyn Jean was happy to accept an offer to manage the secretariat at Maryknoll Sisters Center in a secretarial capacity. Her next assignment was to the Diocese of Udon Thani in Thailand as secretary for English language to Bishop George Yod Phimphisan, C.SS.R. and the diocese for eleven years from 1993 – 2004.
Returning from Thailand, Sister Marilyn Jean served the Congregational Leadership Team with her extraordinary executive secretarial skills from 2005 – 2007. She then spent three years in Monrovia, California in semi-retirement where she served as a coordinating team member from 2007–2010.
In 2014, she returned to the Maryknoll Sisters Center and joined the Chi Rho Community but continued to serve the Congregational Leadership Team in the Secretariat until she definitively retired in December of 2020. Sister asked to transfer to the Eden Community when she felt her health seriously declining.
Funeral Services:
A Vespers Service was held for Sister Marilyn Jean Graf on Thursday, January 9, 2025 at 4:15 p.m. in the Chapel of the Annunciation at the Maryknoll Sisters Center, Maryknoll, NY.
A Memorial Mass was held on Friday, January 10, 2025 at 10:00 A.M. at the Maryknoll Sisters Center.