Donor Stories
The Joy of Giving Back:
Ruth Shy Wilson, CSJA
Ruth Shy Wilson was born in southeast Iowa to a Quaker family. She is one of ten children, one of whom is her twin brother, Roy. When Ruth was 11 years old, she contracted rheumatic fever. Her older sister, Edie, brought her to Denver to see a doctor. The doctor told Edie that Ruth was so sick that she could have died en route. Fortunately, Ruth was treated and better in three months and is ever grateful to Edie and to God for saving her life. In gratitude, she has lived her life trying to give back.
It was during her time living with her sister that Ruth learned about Catholicism from Edie's husband, Ralph Archer, who was taught at St. Catherine's School by Sister Teresa Agnes Talbot, CSJ. After graduating from high school in Iowa, she decided to return to Denver and it is there she took instruction from the Jesuits at Regis College (now University) where she eventually received her bachelor's degree (one of the first females to do so).
Later, Ruth made the decision to become a Sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet and taught as a CSJ for the next 15 years. She was known as Sister Mary Raphaline and then Sister Mary Ruth. It was during the early 70s that Ruth decided to leave the community and start a new chapter in her life. She settled in California where she received her master of arts degree at the University of San Diego and where she met retired commander Clarence Wilson in 1978.
Clarence Wilson was an aerospace engineer who worked on the early Apollo missions. A widower, he had just returned from the Peace Corps in Africa when they met in California. Ruth fell in love with Clarence and they married and enjoyed life together for 29 years until his death in 2007. Although Clarence was not Catholic, he enjoyed the CSJs very much and felt a close philosophical bond with them in their care of humankind. The Wilsons enjoyed their time together traveling, volunteering and playing tennis. After her husband died, Ruth decided to move back to Colorado where three of her sisters still lived. She said she traded the ocean for the Rockies and has not regretted it once.
A few years later Ruth, who was always connected to the Sisters of St. Joseph, made her initial commitment as an associate. Recently, Ruth decided to remember the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet in her estate plans. She said it was an easy decision in part because of her history with them and also because, "I love the sisters and whatever has been given to you one should give back. They are ingrained in my spirit and mine in them." She said it feels great to give back to the sisters not just because she wanted to but more "for the joy of giving rather than the recognition."
Ruth is excited about the 175th anniversary of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet landing in St. Louis. She describes the Sisters of St. Joseph's history as exciting, colorful, brave, the "leaven in the bread." She says she is very passionate about education and "her Sisters of St. Joseph" who instilled in her the love for learning.
Ruth continues, "The charism of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet will not go away-it will always be a process of evolving and will live on in all those whose lives the sisters have touched and molded."
A Legacy of Love: Maryhelen Van Dyke,
1923-2010
In 1923 three-day-old Maryhelen was treated for a respiratory infection at St. Joseph Hospital in Kansas City where she received the loving care of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet. From those first days of life to her last in 2010, Maryhelen Van Dyke was devoted in love and service to the Sisters of St. Joseph-a devotion she shared with Joseph, her husband of 66 years, and her four children, 15 grandchildren, and 11 great-grandchildren, who continue to carry on this legacy.
Fittingly, much of Maryhelen's faithful service and leadership was dedicated to St. Joseph Hospital, which in 1976, became St. Joseph's Medical Center (now part of Carondelet Health). She was president and founder of the newly reformed auxiliary at the medical center, which, with her guidance, grew to over 1,000 members. Maryhelen was also the first female lay member to serve on the center's Board of Directors from 1979-1984 and served on the board of the St. Joseph Health Center Foundation from 1984-1991.
Maryhelen made sure that Christ would remain front and center at the new St. Joseph's. Longtime friend and CSJ supporter Betty Livers recalls, "It would have cost a lot of money to hire someone to hang crosses in every patient's room so Joe, Maryhelen, my husband and I stayed up all night before the new hospital opened and did it ourselves."
Sister Mary Ann Donovan, CSJ can attest to Maryhelen's keen ability to be there when the need arose. Overwhelmed with the task of opening the Kansas City Development Office, Donovan remembers Maryhelen and Betty coming to the rescue. "They knew who to call to get whatever we needed-supplies, wine, volunteers, donors, anything!"
Maryhelen was also committed to supporting Catholic education. She was the president of both the St. Teresa and Rockhurst High School mothers' clubs (where her children attended school). In 1980 she was recognized by Avila University with an honorary degree for her continued service to the sisters. Daughter Joane Wilkerson says, "Mom loved the sisters, and especially Sister Olive Louise Dallavis [former president of Avila]."
Expressing her gratitude and hopes at the end of her life, Maryhelen said, "What I ask of my family is that they thank God every day for all the blessings he has given us."
And at Maryhelen's funeral last August, daughter Jayneen Ross kept her mother's words in mind when she urged her family, "For heaven's sake please get out there and do something nice for somebody else, for she may be able to look down and see if you're bored!"
Indeed, the Van Dyke family is "getting out there" by their continued service to others. They have honored her memory with a generous gift to the Sisters of St. Joseph. With this gift, Joe wrote, "Our family has been very blessed by its association with your order."
And the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet are, too, blessed to be a part of their family.
Pictured: Maryhelen and Joe Van Dyke
Learn More
Click here to learn more about planned giving or contact Patricia R. Cassens, CFRE, chief development officer, at 314-678-0329 or e-mail her at pcassens@csjsl.org.
