Maryknoll Sister Winifred O’Donnell taught at 4 Oahu schools, 1940s-1960s

Maryknoll Sister Winifred O’Donnell, who served in four Oahu schools in the 1940s, ‘50s and ‘60s, died in Maryknoll, N.Y., on April 15. After leaving Hawaii, she spent most of her years in Japan and China. She was 88 and in religious life for 70 years.

Winifred Katherine O’Donnell was born on Oct. 26, 1920, in Pilot Grove, Mo. She entered Maryknoll at Ossining, N.Y. on June 10, 1938, and received the name of Sister Grace Dolores. She made her vows on Jan. 6, 1941 and her final profession on the same date in 1944 at Maryknoll, NY.

Hawaii was her first mission assignment. She arrived in 1944 and for the next 18 years taught different grades at Maryknoll School in Honolulu, St. Ann School in Kaneohe, St. Michael School in Waialua and St. Anthony School in Kalihi. At St. Ann School she became principal and superior from 1953 to 1959.

In 1962 Sister Winifred was assigned to St. Therese School in Chicago Chinatown for three years before returning to St. Anthony, Kalihi, for another three years.

Sister Winifred was assigned to Japan in 1967. She returned to Chicago in 1970 where she earned a master’s degree and did more teaching before going back to Japan in 1976. From 1987 to 1991, she taught English in China at Hunan University in Changsha, Guangdong Teachers College in Canton, Guangdong College of Education in Gwangzhou, and Xidian University in Xian, Shannxi Province.

Of her Chinese students, she said, “I was most moved by their strength of character in the face of hardships and their deep appreciation of those who taught them.”

After China, Sister Winifred returned to Kyoto, Japan, for two years, worked as a writer in Maryknoll’s Development Department, and spent a year in teaching English and doing parish work in Albania. She then returned to Kyoto for another six years.

Sister Winifred retired at Maryknoll in 2002. Failing health required her to move to the Maryknoll Residential Care community in 2004 where she lived until her death.

She is survived by an aunt and three cousins. Her funeral was April 21 at the Maryknoll Sisters Center. She is buried at Maryknoll Sisters Cemetery.