Sister Joan Dumm, R.S.M., was beloved Cockeysville educator

A funeral Mass was offered for Sister of Mercy Joan Dumm Jan. 18 at the Stella Maris Chapel in Timonium. A beloved member of the St. Joseph School in Cockeysville community, she was known as the authority on preparing students for their first Communion. Sister Joan died Jan. 13.

A Washington, D.C., native, Sister Joan grew up attending Catholic schools in the area surrounding the nation’s capital. She encountered the Sisters of Mercy at Trinity High School in the 1950s, and entered the order in Mount Washington just a few months after graduation.

After earning a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Mount St. Agnes College in Baltimore, she began a life-long ministry of teaching. She taught at schools in Maryland and Georgia before beginning at St. Joseph School in Cockeysville in 1970.

Sister Joan taught second grade for most of her 42-year career at St. Joseph.

In the midst of teaching, Sister Joan earned a master’s degree in religious education in 1977 from La Salle College. She was also known for her love of flowers and music.

Sister Joan retired to the Villa, the former retirement home of the Sisters of Mercy, in 2015. A few months before her death, she moved with the other sisters to Mercy Springwell, the order’s new retirement home in Mount Washington, the same neighborhood where she began her vocation.

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