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Looking Back
By S. Mary Bodde

Ministering in education and health care throughout her 73 years in religious life, S. Mary Michael Chizmar also was the first of two women religious in Ohio trained in cosmetology

Seventy-three years in religious life has led S. Mary Michael Chizmar along a varied path. Besides a lengthy ministry in education, and nine years in health care, S. Mary Michael also was the first of two women religious in Ohio trained in cosmetology.

In 1941, S. Mary Michael began her career in education in Akron, Ohio, where she taught the fifth and sixth grades. Then she and three other Vincentian Sisters of Charity opened Sacred Heart in Wadsworth, Ohio, where she taught first and second, then fifth and sixth grades.

“I was teaching the same children over and over again,” she said. “And we doubled the enrollment to between 500 and 600 and had to add more Sisters.”

Sister came home to St. Mary’s in Bedford to teach the seventh grade for four years before being transferred to Lorraine, Ohio, to teach seventh and eighth grades. “That summer when I came home to Bedford, Mother Joseph asked me to ‘take care of Bishop Gallagher’ and be his cook in Lafayette, Ind. Since we were a diocesan community, Bishop Hoban never allowed us to leave the diocese, but since he was a friend of Bishop Gallagher, I was to go. I didn’t know how to cook, but I had to go.

“Bishop Gallagher was a great guy, so considerate,” she continued. “I was there two years but developed an allergic reaction on my hands to the water and was then sent to St. Elizabeth, an inner city Youngstown school, to be the seventh and eighth grade teacher and principal – with no secretary. I left in 1969 to go to St. Barnabas in Northfield, Ohio, for three years, Holy Family in Parma for seven years, and then back to Wadsworth.”

During these teaching/administration years S. Mary Michael did her beautician training after school. “Every six weeks or so I would come to Bedford and do haircuts. Sisters who wanted a perm would come to where I was.”

First licensed as a beautician in 1969, Sister said, “I worked two and one-half years at the Charmaine Beauty School to get a manager’s license.

“At that time the Community planned to develop a vocational school, but the plan fell through,” Sister remembered. “To revamp the building according to state requirements was too expensive. For example, the school facility would have to have three rooms – one for supplies, one for a study room and 10 shampoo bowls in a third; one of the rooms had to have its exit directly out of the building.”

When she was no longer in the classroom, a second grade teacher asked S. Mary Michael to help her. “I did that for two years,” Sister said. “Then I worked at Light of Hearts Villa in nursing care for nine years until I hurt my back.” She also had taken care of two elderly people, each in their homes.

Looking back S. Mary Michael said, “I met a lot of nice people. I’m a people person. In cosmetology school I enjoyed helping the poor. I made sure I gave them the best I had. I had to supervise others and wasn’t supposed to do their work, but I often did,” for the sake of the poor.

Editor’s Note: S. Mary Michael is one of three in her entrance group of 18 former Vincentian Sisters who became Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati at the merger in 2004; the other two are Sisters Mary Ann Raycher and Grace Verba. She came to Mount St. Joseph in 2010.

 

 

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