Sister of Mercy Ruth Handren, former administrator at Mercy Medical Center, dies at 104

A funeral Mass will be held Sept. 4 for Sister of Mercy Ruth Handren. Sister Ruth, formerly known as Sister Mary Scholastica, had been a Sister of Mercy for 81 years. She died Aug. 27 at Mercy Springwell retirement home. She was 104.

Sister Ruth was an influential administrator at what is now Mercy Medical Center.

Born in Norristown, Pa., Nov. 13, 1920, she was one of six children born to George W. Handren and Agnes Jones Handren. She attended St. Patrick’s Elementary School, and Girls’ West Catholic High School in Philadelphia, graduating in 1937. 

Sister Ruth began her studies at Misericordia Hospital School of Nursing after high school and soon became a licensed RN.

She originally planned to enter the Immaculate Heart of Mary Community, but instead chose the Sisters of Mercy in Baltimore because of their nursing ministry. Her brother Walter, a Jesuit priest, introduced her to the Sisters of Mercy.

She began her nursing ministry at what was then Mercy Hospital in Baltimore, and at the same time completed her BSN at Mount St. Agnes College. Following her college graduation, she was sent to the University of St. Louis, where she earned double master’s degrees in social welfare and social work. 

On her return home from St. Louis, she became an administrator in the Social Services Department.

In 1959, Sister Ruth became administrator of what is now Mercy Medical Center and was a key figure and a significant guiding force behind the construction of the Tower Building, now known as McAuley Tower.

According to an obituary by her order, she was “much admired and respected at Mercy Hospital for her quiet strength, her leadership and her flexibility, evident in the various positions she held there. Proof that she was held in high esteem is visible to all as her photograph hangs in the Mary Catherine Bunting Center at Mercy.”

Much of Sister Ruth’s ministry throughout her religious life centered around administrative duties in the area of social work, having served in Daphne and Mobile, Ala., and in Dahlonega, Ga.

In 1973, Sister Ruth began a six-year term on the council of the Sisters of Mercy for the Province of Baltimore. Afterward, she returned to her ministry in social work, with her last ministry being resident manager at Portier Place in Mobile. 

Sister Ruth retired from active ministry in 2006 and moved to The Villa, the Sisters of Mercy retirement convent in Baltimore. In 2018, the sisters moved to Mercy Springwell in Mount Washington. 

A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Sept. 4 at 10:30 a.m. at Mercy Medical Center’s McAuley Chapel, 301 St. Paul Place, Baltimore, MD 21202. Interment will follow in Woodlawn Cemetery in Baltimore. 

She is survived by her niece, Mary Jo Clarkson of Elverson, Pa, 

Donations in memory of Sister Ruth Handren can be made to the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, 8403 Colesville Road, Suite 400, Silver Spring, MD 20910.

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