Former President of Ohio Dominican Dies at Age 66
June 15, 2005
COLUMBUS, OHIO - A celebrated community leader and one of the longest-
serving college presidents in Ohio has died.
Sister Mary Andrew Matesich, O.P., 66, died peacefully on Wednesday,
June 15, 2005, after an extended bout with breast cancer. Sister Mary Andrew
served as the president of Ohio Dominican College (now Ohio Dominican University)
for more than two decades. She was also the author of numerous papers and
presentations; a national and international adviser on education; a civic
and community leader; a courageous breast cancer patient; and a woman of great
faith, a Sister dedicated to her vocation and to her community of Dominican
Sisters of St. Mary of the Springs.
Sister Mary Andrew was one of only a handful of women college presidents in
the country when she took office in 1978 at the age of 39. During her 23-year term
as president, she led the college through a period of unprecedented growth and
earned a reputation as a national advocate for higher education and private
colleges and universities. Her dedication to the underserved motivated her to
institute several programs to bring educational opportunities to first
generation students including working adults and soldiers returning from service.
Under Sister Mary Andrew's leadership, the college:
- Grew its student body from 860 in 1978 to more than 2,100 in 2000.
- Became the first Central Ohio higher education institution to offer weekend classes.
- Started the Village to Child program in 1994, a program that provides mentoring,
tutoring and college awareness programs for middle school students living in the
neighborhood surrounding the ODU campus - the 43219 zip code area.
- Started the Learning Enhanced Adult Degree (LEAD) program, allowing hundreds of
working adults to earn a degree while balancing family and job commitments.
- Initiated new majors to meet marketplace needs, including Accounting, Computer
Science and Criminal Justice.
- Transformed the learning environment through innovative technology and faculty.
Sister Mary Andrew's successor, Jack P. Calareso, Ph.D., became Ohio
Dominican's first lay and male president in May 2001. "Sister Mary Andrew
was an extraordinary leader, both at the local and national levels," said
President Calareso. "While her courageous struggle with cancer is over, her
impact on Ohio Dominican and Catholic higher education will last forever."
"Sister Mary Andrew was a leader not only at Ohio Dominican and in the
larger community, but also within her congregation of Dominican sisters,"
said Sister Anne Kilbride, Prioress of the Dominican Sisters of St. Mary
of the Springs. "She lived her life dedicated to her faith and to the Dominican
ideal of contemplating the truth and sharing with others the fruits of that
contemplation."
Sister Mary Andrew was born in Zanesville and raised in Newark, Ohio.
She graduated from St. Francis DeSales High School, now Newark Catholic High
School, in 1957. At age 18, she entered the novitiate and became a member of
the Congregation of Dominican Sisters of St. Mary of the Springs, the founders
of the College of St. Mary of the Springs, which was renamed Ohio Dominican
College in 1968.
She graduated with honors with a B.A. in Chemistry from the College of St.
Mary of the Springs in 1962, and earned an M.S. and Ph.D. in Chemistry from
the University of California at Berkeley, one of few women at the time to earn
a doctorate in a physical science. In 1965, Sister Mary Andrew returned to Ohio
Dominican as a faculty member in the Chemistry Department, and was elevated to
academic dean in 1973. In 1978, she was named college president, a position she
held until her retirement in 2001.
Sister Mary Andrew was one of the first female members of the Columbus Torch
Club and the Columbus Rotary. She served as chair of the Ohio Ethics Commission.
A board member of United Way of Central Ohio, Sister Mary Andrew worked diligently
on behalf of its Race Relations Committee. She was also active with the National
Science Foundation. She was a recipient of many awards, including the ODU
Distinguished Alumni/ae Award, the Presidential Leadership Award, the YWCA
Women of Achievement Award, the Columbus Foundation Award and the Henry Paley
National Award for Advocacy. In 2001, she was one of 18 women inducted into
the Ohio Women's Hall of Fame. Sister Mary Andrew celebrated her 45th Jubilee,
the anniversary of when she originally took her religious vows, in 2004.
She was diagnosed and treated for breast cancer when she was 54. At age
59, the cancer returned. Her willingness to undergo experimental breast cancer
treatment at OSU's Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital was featured in a New York
Times cover story in July 2004 and in a feature article in Columbus Monthly in
April 2005 and in numerous other media. Sister Mary Andrew told the Times,
"As a sister, a member of a religious order, someone in a service capacity my
whole life, I want to continue to be of service to others. I wouldn't be
alive today if other women hadn't been in clinical trials."
Even as Sister Mary Andrew struggled with physical challenges toward the
end of her life, her dedication remained. She was active in her congregation,
and in her spare time created beautiful handcrafts, which she sold at St.
Mary of the Springs, sending all proceeds to help the people of El Salvador,
where her sister, Gigi Gruenke, serves as a Maryknoll lay missionary.
The following events Monday morning will be in Christ the King Chapel in
Sansbury Hall on Ohio Dominican University’s campus at 1216 Sunbury Road.
Parking is available in the Main Visitor’s Lot directly west of Sunbury
Road, or Parking Lot C next to Fitzpatrick Hall, east of Sunbury Road. The
public is welcome to attend any and all of these events.
Monday, June 20
9:00 – 11:00 a.m. Wake at Christ the King Chapel, Sansbury Hall
11:00 a.m. Mass at Christ the King Chapel
The following events Monday afternoon/evening and Tuesday morning will take
place in the Chapel at St. Mary of the Springs, 2320 Airport Drive. Parking is
available in the parking lots surrounding the Motherhouse, which are accessible
via the main entrance from Airport Drive.
Monday, June 20
2:00 p.m. Welcoming service at St. Mary of the Springs Chapel
2:30 – 4:30 p.m. Wake at St. Mary of the Springs Chapel
4:30 p.m. Remembrance Service at St. Mary of the Springs Chapel
Wake at St. Mary of the Springs Chapel follows until 7:00 p.m.
Tuesday, June 21
9:00 a.m. Mass at St. Mary of the Springs Chapel
Burial immediately following at St. Joseph’s Cemetery, 6440 South
High Street (Route 23), Lockbourne, OH.
