Sister Joan Sheil
Margaret Joan Sheil was born in Des Moines, Iowa, on July 28, 1934, an only child, known as “Joan or Joanie.” Her parents were John Clement Sheil and Bernice (Moore) Sheil. She grew up in Mount Ayr, Iowa, and attended public schools there, graduating from high school in 1952. She may have had summer religion classes with Sisters of Humility as the area produced religious vocations from nearby Corning and Creston.
Joan attended Marycrest College, in Davenport, and entered the Congregation of the Humility of Mary in Ottumwa, Iowa, on September 8, 1955. As a postulant, she commuted to Davenport, to continue college classes that enabled her to complete the B.A. and graduate with “her Marycrest class” in 1956. Her major was Library Science and minor was English. On the trips to Davenport, the students and faculty rode in a large car, and had stops in Iowa City. A regular responsibility was transporting laundry between the college campus and the Heights where it was handled in the institutional laundry there.
Joan received the religious habit that summer and her religious name, Sister Michael Maureen. She and her classmates made first vows in July 1958 at St. Mary’s Church in Ottumwa. A devastating fire had destroyed the entire Ottumwa Heights complex – Motherhouse, Novitiate, Junior College and Academy – that previous October 1957. Her class of 14 novices made final vows in 1961, the first to make them in the newly-constructed chapel on the Ottumwa Heights campus. Surviving classmates are Srs. Johnelle Howanach, Mary Rehmann and Dorothy Ann Chevalier.
After first profession, she was the first of her class to be missioned outside Ottumwa, to Marycrest College as assistant librarian. Thus began 43 years of ministry to Marycrest College, which would transition to Marycrest-Teikyo University, and finally Marycrest International University until it closed in 2001.
During the summers of 1962 and ’63, Sr. Michael Maureen took graduate work in library science and completed the M.A. degree at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis in 1965.
Her career at Marycrest included being director of the media center and closed-circuit television [from 1965 to 1972] (1965-1972). It was during those years that the Sisters of Humility engaged in a deliberate study of the documents from Vatican II directing consecrated religious women and men to re-imagine prayer, the vows, ministries, and to make adaptations in response to the “signs of the times.” Sr. Michael Maureen resumed use of her baptismal name “Joan” and changed from the habit to wearing contemporary clothes. Consistent with the centrality of the college library, she served in administrative positions such as Chair of the Department of Education, Library Science, and Psychology (1982-1985), Faculty Athletic Representative starting in 1980, and as Director of Library Services (1972-1999). Between 1991 and 1998, she had 19 committee appointments. Perhaps the most “unexpected position” she filled was Vice President of Student Affairs for two years between (1968-1970).
Unafraid of change, Sr. Joan was an advocate for embracing new technology and encouraged early adoption of computers in the Marycrest library. She was among the first librarians in the Quad Cities area to link their collections online. She served as chairperson of the Bi-State Academic Libraries agency starting in 1975, served on the Long Range Planning Committee for the State of Iowa from 1983-1987, was a delegate to the Iowa Pre-White House Conference on Libraries in 1991, and a member of the Catholic Library Association, for which she was a convention speaker in 1968.
In addition to her formal degrees, Joan completed continuing education studies on Instructional Media and System Design from the Michigan State University Advanced Media Institute in 1967 and throughout the 1980s completed workshops through the University of Iowa in Online Networks & Networking, Microcomputers, and Copyright in the Age of Technology (1993).
Sister Joan was a familiar softball pitcher in the Quad-Cities -- playing for, among others, the Backside Bar team in the early ‘80s. She had been playing for more than a decade, and was known as one of the best d___ pitchers in the Davenport Parks B League. Columnist Bill Wundrum wrote about her in the Quad-City Times, having seen her on a warm summer night. Her familiar “red-face” was explained by a teammate, “she’s red-faced because she can really get mad!” It was normal to see Sisters Mary Edith, Harriett Ping, Sue Sellers and Mary Ann Vogel among her supporters in the stands.
Sisters Mary Edith Kane, Marie Ven Horst, Elizabeth Anne Schneider and Joan were long-time friends, housemates and dog owners. For some time they lived in a duplex on West 10th Street, where each of them contributed from their knowledge and expertise. Two of them lived in each of the apartments, and I am sure many stories can be told about those relationships. After Sr. Mary Edith died in August 2002, the other three sisters moved to Humility of Mary Center, bringing their personalities and gifts to a new experience of community life.
Sr. Joan was appointed congregation archivist in 2001. She had the painstaking job of organizing 130 years of Humility history since leaving the Pennsylvania community and moving to Missouri in 1870, moving to Ottumwa, Iowa, in 1877, with Motherhouse there until the opening of Humility of Mary Center in Davenport in 1983. It was after Vatican II that the Iowa sisters, with a few exceptions, had broad access to records of the community’s origins in France, and the history that led to the move to the United States.
The community records she inherited had a minimum of organizing when she was appointed. To start with, it meant reading and/or skimming thousands of pages of records and pictures, establishing a method for sorting, then organizing them, putting them in file folders, placing the folders in boxes, and, finally, labeling them. Thankfully, a searcher could find a hand-written list of the contents when one opened the box. Access to information was in a familiar huge, thick computer print-out, which I am told is still valuable. But current archivist, Amy Yuncker-McCoy, has coverted the content to computer-searchable files.
When a climate-controlled room in the Marycrest College Library basement became available, Sr. Joan directed moving the boxes there. For easy access, some materials were kept in the chapel of Humility of Mary Convent on Pleasant Street until they could be moved to Humility of Mary Center. When Marycrest changed owners, the boxes were moved to a space made available above Davenport Printing Company. Eventually the congregation archives have their own space at Humility of Mary Center.
A piece of archive history: It was only after Vatican II that the Iowa congregation was re-introduced to records of the community’s origins in France, and the history that led to the move to the United States in 1864. Fortunately, long-time keeper of that history in Pennsylvania, Sr. Mary-Joanna Huegle, was eager to share and talk about their collection. The establishment of the CHM/HM Committee in 1986 led to decades of shared cooperation in communications, ministry opportunities, pilgrimages, and in friendships among members.
Sr. Micheline Curtis was Sr. Joan’s long-time assistant, having moved from Lombard, Illinois, to the Center after recuperating from a stroke. Together they also moved the institutional records from Ottumwa Heights College and St. Joseph’s Hospital to the lower floor of the Vine Street Apartments, where some may still be found. Sr. Micheline continued the practice of composing tributes, like this. This author also had the benefit of their work when she served as Assistant Archivist with Joanie, and then Archivist for a few years. Their comprehensive work has contributed greatly to communications for congregational events like this, and regular corporate communications with our members and our publics.
Sr. Joan Sheil worked hard and played hard, tennis as well as softball, for almost 70 years as a Sister of Humility. She had lifelong friends among staff with whom she worked, professional associates in local, state and national organizations, and Marycrest alumnae with whom she corresponded and camped.
Soon after Sr. Joan moved to Bishop Drumm Retirement Center in 2016, she received a motorized wheelchair that enabled her to engage in the activities she enjoyed. She had
frequent visits from former students and colleagues, including birthday celebrations. They brought her the hottest Tabasco sauce they could find, her favorite dark chocolate and liqueurs in little chocolate “bottles” too.
Staff at Bishop Drumm remarked about her ability to endure levels of discomfort and pain without complaining. They said she rarely asked for anything and was most grateful for all she received. Although she will be missed, they are grateful that her earthly body constraints are over.
As noted earlier, I am a classmate of Joanie, and “seven of us” went out for a meal together during the annual summer assemblies for many years. We celebrated silver jubilees in 1983, fifty years in 2005, and 60 years together in 2015. Since then, Sr. Lucille Feehan died in 2020, Sr. Hilary Veith in 2022, and Sr. Pat Miller just last year on July 1. Srs. Johnelle Howanach and Dorothy Ann Chevalier are holding up the guard with me. We intend to celebrate 70 years next summer.
Joanie was “quiet,” listened, and was known to come up with some pretty good retorts. Is it any surprise, then, that she lived her last few days peacefully, in a time of silence?
Sister Mary Rehmann, CHM