Marlborough – Sister Mary Agnes Ertel (Agnes R. Ertel) died at St. Patrick’s Manor Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2014 after a long illness. She was 89 years of age and had been a Sister of the Good Shepherd for 64 years.
Sister Mary Agnes was born in 1925 in Rockville, Conn., the daughter of William C. and Anna Cecilia (Stucky) Ertel. She attended St. Bernard’s Grammar School and graduated from Rockville High School in Rockville, Conn.
In 1950, Sister Mary Agnes entered the Novitiate of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd in Peekskill, N.Y., where she received her formal training in the mission of the Sisters. She made her first profession in 1953 and pronounced her final vows in 1956. She attended the University of Hartford in Hartford, Conn., where she majored in Secretarial Sciences. She then went on to study Business at St. Rose College in Albany, N.Y.
Sister Mary Agnes worked with the girls as a Child Care supervisor at St. Germaine’s residential program at Mt. Florence in Peekskill from 1953-55. In 1955, she became Administrative Assistant to the Province Leader. In 1957, she was missioned to Troy, N.Y. as a business teacher and recreational activities coordinator for the girls in residence.
In 1959, she was again missioned to Mt. Florence, Peekskill, N.Y. – this time as Assistant Novice Mistress in the Sisters’ Formation Program until 1965. She was then missioned to Madonna Heights in Dix Hills, N.Y., working with the girls in the residential program. Sister Mary Agnes continued to use her business skills in the service of the community in Hartford, Conn., where she spent 10 years; Albany, N.Y. for nine years; and at Madonna Heights in Dix Hills, N.Y. for an additional 20 years.
Throughout her long life, Sister Mary Agnes was a woman of many talents and she generously shared these talents in many of the Good Shepherd programs in the Province. Sister was also an exemplary religious, and in her years as Assistant Directress in the Good Shepherd Formation Program she was an example to so many young women who entered the Novitiate of the Good Shepherd Sisters.
Sister Mary Agnes is survived by her brother, William Ertel Jr. of Ellington, Conn., and her sister, Teresa Yoreo and her husband James of Tolland, Conn.; her nephews, Charles Ertel and Daniel Yoreo; and her niece, Margaret (Yoreo) Moffett.
Visiting hours will be held Monday, Jan. 5, from 4-8 p.m., at Good Shepherd Center, 406 Hemenway St., Marlborough, with a Prayer Service at 7 p.m. A Mass of Christian Burial will be offered for Sister at Good Shepherd Center Tuesday, Jan. 6, at 11 a.m. Burial will be at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Springfield. Funeral arrangements are under the direction of Fitzgerald & Collins Funeral Home of Marlborough (www.CollinsFuneral.com).
Expressions of sympathy in memory of Sister Mary Agnes may be made to the Good Shepherd Retirement Fund, 406 Hemenway St., Marlborough, MA 01752. The Sisters of the Good Shepherd were founded by St. Mary Euphrasia Pelletier in Angers, France in 1835, and in the United States (Louisville, Ky.) in 1843 and in Boston in 1867.
