Sister Shawn Marie Maguire, who became synonymous with Maryvale Preparatory School after leading the Lutherville private girls school for more than three decades, died Sept. 17 at Stella Maris, a long-term care facility in Timonium. The Sister of Notre Dame de Namur was 81.
She had been recovering after having a serious stroke last year, the school said in a letter to students and alumnae.
This week, dozens of former students wrote social media posts to mourn Sister Shawn, and a common theme runs through their heartfelt tributes — she was Maryvale.
“She was the heart and soul of that school,” said Marla Stanton, a friend and former teacher at Maryvale. “She absolutely loved every one of the girls that came through that door. She knew every one of those girls. She never forgot their names. She knew not only the girls, but their parents, their siblings and many of those girls that married had children of their own and came back. So she knew their children as well.”
Tracey Ford, who succeeded Sister Shawn as president of Maryvale, said Sister Shawn had many academic and administrative achievements, but it was her deep connection with the students that made her “legendary.”
“Maryvale was her life. She never missed not only a school day but a play or a concert or an outing,” Ford said. “It is extraordinary, especially in our day and age, to have an educator who dedicated so much of her life to one place.”
Born in Philadelphia in 1939, Marie Teresa Maguire attended Catholic schools and entered Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur in 1957.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in education from what is now Trinity Washington University in 1962. She later earned master’s degrees in education from Temple University in Philadelphia and what now Loyola University Maryland in Baltimore.
Before coming to Maryvale, Sister Shawn served as a schoolteacher in Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, including Our Lady of Victory School in Arbutus.
Sister Shawn joined Maryvale in the late 1970s while studying at Loyola. She quickly started teaching religion and English in the middle school before being promoted to vice-principal. In 1981, she was named headmistress. Through the years, her title changed to principal and eventually to president.
She retired in 2012, passing the leadership of the school to a layperson for the first time in its history. Under her leadership, the Baltimore County campus grew beyond the confines of the main building known as the Castle to include a high-tech center for the arts and humanities and new athletic fields. One those additions – the learning center – bears Sister Shawn’s name.
Sherry Pudloski, who graduated from Maryvale in 1985, met Sister Shawn when she first interviewed to attend the school, beginning a lifelong friendship. Above all, Pudloski said Sister Shawn made the school a place where girls could thrive in every area of their lives.
“When we would start the year, she would give a speech every year that said, ‘Now nobody is new. After today, nobody is new.’ And what she always was trying to do is create a community where everybody was accepted,”
A prolific letter writer, Sister Shawn would keep in contact with students years after their graduation, Pudloski said.
“So women who were in my class, when a parent would die, Sister Shawn would go to the funeral,” said Pudloski, who works as a communications executive in the New York area. “She would be there to support us, not just while we were there and students, but, as women in the community.
“Once we were part of the Maryvale community, we were we were part of her family,” Pudloski said. “She would keep us in her prayers and her actions in her life, which was really amazing.”
Stanton said Sister Shawn believed in the entire high school experience encouraging girls to play to their strengths, whether it be in the arts and humanities or math and science. And she knew Maryvale was more than just classrooms, Stanton said.
“She was at every game, no matter if it was outdoors, indoors and football, soccer, lacrosse, whatever,” Stanton said.
Stanton remembers Sister Shawn joining the girls in celebrating Halloween. Some years Sister Shawn would wear a Maryvale school uniform and be a “student” for the day. Other Halloweens, she would go unnoticed by students by wearing long black cloak and a mask.
“If you ask the students, ‘Who had a big influence in your life,’ Sister Shawn is always going to be one of them, mainly because she made every one of those girls feel like they were number one,” said Stanton who taught French at Maryvale for 37 years.
In interviews, always humble, Sister Shawn downplayed her role and boosted her students and graduates.
“People will say I am Maryvale,” she said in a 2011 interview with the Catholic Review, “and I’ll say we are Maryvale.”
Speaking to The Baltimore Sun on her last Maryvale graduation as principal, Sister Shawn said that in handing students their diplomas, she was sending them forward.
“My hope always is, in any of the work that I did, that I could never make a difference — I myself — the way that all of these young women can,” she said.
Ford said the school would hold a memorial service for Sister Shawn when physically distancing restrictions because of COVID19 are lifted.
Memorial contributions in honor of Sister Shawn may be made to the Sr. Shawn Marie Maguire, SND Scholarship Endowment Fund at Maryvale.
She is survived by brothers, J. Patrick Maguire and Michael Shawn Maguire.
Email Tim Swift at tswift@CatholicReview.org
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