Birth: Feb. 19, 1911 Profession: Feb. 8, 1939 Death: Oct. 25, 2009
Miriam Schumann, Religious of the Sacred Heart and a “teacher of teachers,” died peacefully on October 25, 2009 at Teresian House in Albany, New York. Sister Schumann was born February 19, 1911, in Brooklyn, New York. Her parents were Carl Julius Schumann and Mary Griffin Schuman; her only surviving sister, Virginia Schumann, is also a Religious of the Sacred Heart and is a member of the community at Teresian House. Sister Miriam Schumann entered the Society of the Sacred Heart at Kenwood, in Albany, on November 8, 1929, and made her final vows on February 8, 1939, in Rome, after a period of preparation there. From 1932 until 1939, she taught classes and was elementary principal in two Sacred Heart schools in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and for ten years following her final vows held the same positions at the Sacred Heart school in Providence, Rhode Island. From 1949 until 1962, she served in similar capacities at 91st Street in New York City and at Convent of the Sacred Heart in Greenwich, Connecticut. Recognizing her gift for elementary education, which included the Montessori method, and for training others in that field, the president of Manhattanville College in Purchase, New York, invited Sister Schumann to join the faculty. For seventeen years, she taught classes there, lectured widely on the subject of elementary education, and was a consultant at various colleges, child development centers, and teachers’ institutes in New York, Connecticut, and California. From 1979 to 1985, she was coordinator of elementary classes at the Caedmon School in New York City. Sister Schumann was a warm and stylish woman who walked with purpose on campuses and throughout the streets of her beloved New York City. A teacher of teachers, she was a positive influence on the lives of generations of teachers. She knew the secret of education is: “Praise, praise, praise…” – and that is how she conducted her life. She retired to Kenwood Convent in Albany in 1997 and moved to Teresian House in 2007. A Memorial Mass for Sister Schumann will be held at the Teresian House Chapel on Friday, October 30, 2009 at 1:30 p.m. following a viewing at 12:30. Memorial contributions may be made to the Society of the Sacred Heart, 4120 Forest Park Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63108.