Sister Judith Anne Schaum, leader in Baltimore Catholic schools, dies at 85

A funeral Mass was offered Sept. 12 for School Sister of Notre Dame Judith Schaum, a teacher and administrator at several schools in her native Baltimore who also served as a longtime assistant superintendent of Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Baltimore. She died Sept. 4 at age 85.  

Baptized at St. Elizabeth of Hungary in Highlandtown, she was a parishioner and attended school at St. Joseph Monastery in Southwest Baltimore. 

As a senior at the Institute of Notre Dame in Baltimore, she received her candidate’s veil as a School Sister of Notre Dame Sept. 7, 1959, in the IND chapel. After completing the candidature/postulancy and novitiate at the Baltimore Motherhouse, she professed first vows  July 25, 1959. 

She taught at St. Jerome Elementary School in Baltimore and then Archbishop Keough High School (later Seton-Keough High School) where, in addition to teaching math, she served as dean of students and vice principal for 11 years. She served 12 years as a teacher, vice principal and principal at IND. 

Sister Judith held a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from what is now Notre Dame of Maryland University and a master of teaching mathematics from Villanova University in Philadelphia. 

She took her leadership skills to the Archdiocese of Baltimore Catholic Schools office, serving as the assistant to the superintendent for secondary education and then assistant superintendent of Catholic schools 1990-2000. 

She served from 2000 to 2005 on the provincial council for her religious community, helping establish the Atlantic-Midwest Province and served as the first director of mission effectiveness for the province. 

Despite retiring from formal ministry in 2017, Sister Judith remained a fully engaged member of several boards for Notre Dame of Maryland University. 

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