Sister Margaret O’Dwyer passed away peacefully on February 7, 2023, at St. Louise House, in Albany at the age of 68. She was born on October 4, 1954, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the third of seven children to the late William O’Dwyer and Patricia Carmody O’Dwyer. After graduating from Lumen Christi High School in Jackson, Michigan, she pursued a degree in history from Grand Valley State College. Following this, she earned a Juris Doctor from Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Lansing, Michigan.
Sister Margaret entered the Daughters of Charity as a postulant in 1992, followed by Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland. She served for seven years as a patient advocate at St. Thomas Hospital, Nashville, Tennessee. From there she was missioned to the Human Resources Department at St. Anthony Hospital in Chicago. In 2004, she received a call to minister in the Cook Islands, where she served from early 2005 until the end of 2014. There she enjoyed her work with remedial high school students at Nukutere College (high school), worked to improve the educational status of prisoners, and encouraged parishioners to support prisoners with a prayer service and a meal.
Upon her return to the U.S. in late 2014, she assumed a role as representative of the Daughters of Charity to the United Nations, perhaps most significantly collaborating on the passage, through the General Assembly, of a resolution on homelessness.
Sister Margaret is survived by her Sisters in Community and her siblings, Catherine (Robert) Noonan, Elizabeth (Sean) DesNoyer, Mary Bridget (Roy) Kiddy, William (Holly) O’Dwyer, James O’Dwyer, and Patrick (Julie) O’Dwyer; a special aunt, Kathleen (Patrick) Eardley, and many beloved nieces, nephews, grandnieces, cousins and friends.
A Wake service was held on Monday, February 13, in the DePaul House Chapel, 96 Menand Road, Albany. A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated on Tuesday, February 14 at the DePaul House Chapel with interment in St. Agnes Cemetery.