Sister Mary Alvita Maguire, educator, dies at 94

A funeral Mass for School Sister of Notre Dame Mary Alvita Maguire was offered June 7 at Villa Assumpta in Baltimore. Sister Alvita died May 27; she was 94.

The middle child of 11, Sister Alvita was born in Yonkers, N.Y. She met the School Sisters of Notre Dame when her family moved to Bergenfield, N.J., in 1933. By the time she completed the eighth grade, she had decided that she would join them, and she entered the order’s juniorate at the Academy of the Holy Angels in Fort Lee, N.J.

After receiving the bonnet in 1941, following her graduation, Sister Alvita traveled to Baltimore where she continued her education.

Ministering primarily in teaching, Sister Alvita served at schools in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C.

She was a teacher and administrator at St. Mary Catholic School in Hagerstown from 1971 to 1977, and taught junior high school at St. Pius X School in Rodgers Forge from 1981 to 1985.

Sister Alvita taught at Bishop Walsh School in Cumberland from 1986 to 1990, and then served in a variety of finance and administrative positions at Villa Assumpta while living in community at St. Mary of the Assumption in Govans and what is now Notre Dame of Maryland University.

She held a bachelor’s degree from Notre Dame and a master’s degree from Wayne State University in Detroit.