Sister Marylin (St. Robert of Mary) Stack, a member of the Congregation of Notre Dame, died July 2 in Wilton, Connecticut.

Born in Waterbury, Connecticut, she made her first profession of vows in 1959 in Bourbonnais, Illinois, and her perpetual vows in1965 in Montreal.

For more than 50 years she was involved in Catholic education in Rhode Island, New York, Connecticut, Illinois, and South Dakota.  For more than twenty years Sister Stack ministered at St. Jude the Apostle school and parish in South Holland as teacher and administrator.

Father John J. Rochford, 96, died June 1 at Palos Community Hospital, Palos Heights. He was pastor emeritus of St. Emeric Parish, Country Club Hills.

Born in Chicago, he attended St. Joachim School, Quigley Preparatory Seminary and the University of St. Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary before being ordained in 1947.

Father Rochford served as assistant pastor at St. Mark, St. Bartholomew and St. Raymond de Penafort, Mount Prospect between 1947 and 1966.

He was then chaplain at Alexian Brothers Hospital, now Amita Health Alexian Brothers Medical Center, in Elk Grove Village, for six years before being named pastor of St. Emeric Parish in 1972. He was named pastor emeritus in 1991.

Father James A. Colleran, 80, died June 2. He was pastor emeritus of St. Mary of the Lake Parish, and a resident at The Admiral at the Lake nursing home.
Born in Chicago, he attended St. Ignatius School, Quigley Preparatory Seminary and the University of St. Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary before being ordained in 1963.
Father Colleran served at St. Bonaventure, St. Vitus Parish on Paulina Street, Our Lady of Lourdes and St. Mary of the Lake Parish. He was named pastor emeritus in 2007.

BVM Sister Ann Ida Gannon, 103, died June 3, in Dubuque, Iowa.

Born in Chicago, she entered the BVM congregation in 1932, from St. Jerome Parish and professed final vows in 1940.

Sister Ann Ida was a professor at Mundelein College, Chicago, where she later served as president from 1957 to 1975. In Chicago, she also taught at St. Mary High School and St. Ferdinand and St. Charles elementary schools.

Beyond her academic responsibilities, she participated in the governance processes of the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In 1960 she was the youngest chapter delegate participating in the election of the congregation’s leadership.

She received numerous awards, including the University of Notre Dame’s Laetare Medal, and 26 honorary degrees.

She is survived by a sister, Benedictine Sister Joan Gannon.

Divine Word Brother Patrick Hegarty, 97, who helped to make Ireland’s The Word one of the country’s most successful magazines, died on May 28.

Born in County Galway, Ireland, in 1921, he was the eldest of six brothers. After finishing school, he worked as an apprentice at a general store in Kilsallagh, Galway, before joining the Society of the Divine Word at St. Patrick’s College, Donamon Castle, Roscommon, in 1944. 

Brother Patrick worked in Great Britain during the 1950s, at Divine Word College in Rome in the early 1960s and in the United States thereafter. In Ireland and the United Kingdom, he sold greeting cards and The Word magazine; in the U.S., he sold altar wine produced at a Divine Word winery.

In 2006 at age 85, Brother Patrick moved to Bordentown, New Jersey, to retire. Fluent in German, Italian and Spanish, he volunteered at the Trenton Diocesan Office for Migrants and Refugees in Perth Ambry, New Jersey. While there, he helped hundreds of immigrants from South and Central America navigate the immigration system. 

He moved to Techny in 2009.