Sister Michaela Zahner, CSJ

An unassuming woman of insight and integrity

Victor and Lorene (Soden) Zahner of Kansas City, Missouri, adopted a one-year-old girl whom they named Michaela Marie. She was born in Kansas City on Pearl Harbor Day, December 7, 1941. Three years later, twin daughters were adopted, and seven years after that, Mrs. Zahner gave birth to a son who completed the family. Michaela was very close to her Grandmother Soden and traveled with her every summer. While they were growing up, the family took vacations each summer on a quest to visit all the state capitols. When she was almost 15, her mother died. Michaela helped with her siblings and did the shopping and cooking as she finished high school at St. Teresa's Academy. She was so grateful to the sisters who helped her in many ways. She shared with her parents that she wanted to be a sister. Her father said if that is what she wanted to do, she had his permission and assured her that they would get along okay.

On September 15, 1958, 16-year-old Michaela entered the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet. She received the habit and the name Sister Anne Victor on March 19, 1959. She earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Fontbonne College (1963). Her teaching career began with teaching elementary students at St. Francis de Sales in Denver, Colorado (1963). In 1965, she was missioned to St. Patrick School in University City, Missouri. Then, in 1968, she began studying for her master’s in history at the University of Chicago. S. Michaela moved into teaching secondary students at St. Teresa’s Academy in 1975, becoming part of their administrative team in 1978. In 1984, S. Michaela taught at both Avila and Rockhurst Colleges. The following year, she became an associate dean at Rockhurst.

S. Michaela decided she needed time away from education. In 1995, she applied for and received a position as a sales associate at Dillard's Department Store in the Galleria Mall in St. Louis. She recalled:

It gave me a perspective on what the college kids were going through in terms of handling an education and working at the same time. It gave me a sense of what it was like to work for somebody else and to be not in charge of your own life so to speak.

S. Michaela went on to became the director of grants at Fontbonne University in 1997. “I really enjoyed ... raising money for Fontbonne but also telling Fontbonne’s story," she said. "It was a good experience.” When she began serving as president of St. Joseph's Academy in St. Louis (2004), S. Michaela recalled, “It was the first time that the community ever really said ... 'We need you to do something.' So, my answer was obviously, 'Yes.'” In 2011, she retired but then returned to St. Joseph's Academy as special projects manager in 2012 until retiring again three years later. S. Michaela moved to Carondelet Manor on the Nazareth Living Center campus in 2019.

S. Michaela adored her father, who took her around the world, so she would tell wonderful stories of her travels with him to Asia. She was a mesmerizing storyteller! [She was] a really stylish dresser! She made many of her own clothes, but she was a meticulous tailor. Nothing looked homemade.
—Paula (Schweiger, '77) Holmquist, St. Teresa's Academy, Alumnae Director

What a good, unassuming woman! Michaela enjoyed a good laugh, a good read, good classical music, good conversation and a good meal. She was a creative thinker who asked critical, incisive questions and listened to gather facts rather than pronounce judgment. I found her to be a woman of integrity who spoke thoughtfully and honestly, lead with vision and worked collaboratively and wholeheartedly to achieve what she believed. —Suzanne Giblin, CSJ

By Sister Helen Oates

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