Maryknoll, NY:
Sister Dolores Poelzer died on February 25, 2025 at the Maryknoll Sisters Center, Maryknoll, NY. She was 91 years old and a Maryknoll Sister for 69 years.
On September 1, 1933, Dolores Poelzer was born in Humboldt, Saskatchewan, Canada to Elizabeth Hinz and Michael Poelzer. She had five brothers and six sisters; her brother Jerome along with two sisters-in-law, Kathleen and Cecile, and a brother-in-law, Tim, and many nieces, nephews, grandnieces and nephews, survive her.
From 1950-1951, Sister Dolores attended Ursuline Academy High School in Bruno, Saskatchewan, Canada. She earned her BA in Sociology at Seattle University in 1956 in Washington. In 1966, she began to study for an MA in Sociology at the Universidad Catolica de Chile. The following year, she transferred to the University of Oregon in Eugene, OR, specifically to go on for a doctorate, received her Master’s in Sociology in 1969 and her PhD in 1972.
She entered the Maryknoll Sisters at Maryknoll, NY on September 2, 1956 from Our Lady of Perpetual Help parish in Kamloops, B.C. She pronounced her First Profession of Vows on June 24, 1959 at Maryknoll, NY and her Final Vows on the same date in 1965 in Chile.
Sister was assigned to Chile in 1961 where, she taught Religion and put her music skills to work in Grades 1 and 9 in Talcahuano until 1965. She studied Piano and Music Theory at the Toronto Conservatory of Music.
In the course of her studies, she directed a project known as the Santa Ana Research Project for the Maryknoll Fathers in El Salvador. Dolores had every intention of returning to Chile, circumstances conspired to prevent her doing so, among them a spinal injury in 1972 which kept her in the States for a year.
In 1972 she became a lecturer in the Department of Sociology at Humboldt State University in Arcata, CA, where she also worked to start a Religious Studies Program (which later became a Department), and a Women’s Studies Program. In 1977, she took leave from Humboldt to be a visiting Professor at St. Thomas More College, University of Saskatchewan, Canada. In 1981, she was promoted to the rank of full professor.
In 1988, she needed to take family leave and care for her elderly mother until her death in 1998 at the age of 102. Sister Dolores received “Herstory Award” from the Seattle University for “Significant contributions on issues of Women” in 1991. In 1996, she was teaching at the University of Saskatchewan.
Sister retired, but not to a rocking chair. In those years, she lived in Eugene, OR, and was very active in Vocation promotion; she spoke in parishes and in schools, especially college campuses, and occasional youth groups in addition to continuing in her usual parish ministry.
At age 90, after fifty fulfilling years as a university professor and member of the Western Region, on March 1, 2023, Dolores was assigned to the Eden Community where her increasing health needs could be met most adequately.
Funeral Services:
A Vespers Service was held for Sister Dolores Poelzer on Tuesday, March 4, 2025 at 4:15 p.m. in the Chapel of the Annunciation at the Maryknoll Sisters Center, Maryknoll, NY.
A Mass of Christian Burial was held on Wednesday, March 5, 2025 at 10:00 A.M. at the Maryknoll Sisters Center.