Sister of Providence well-known for area involvement.
Sister of Providence Mary Caritas Geary, vice president of her Holyoke-based order of women religious and former president of Mercy Medical Center, celebrated her 90th birthday with a party given by friends and colleagues on Aug. 14 at Glenmeadow in Longmeadow.
A sports enthusiast who works out herself, Geary has been 66 years in religious life and is well known for her community involvement and accomplishments.
Geary, whose parents came from Ireland's County Cork, was born Hannah Jean Geary. A graduate of the High School Commerce in Springfield, she attended Mercy Hospital School of Nursing to become a registered nurse. She earned her bachelor's degree from Regis College in Weston, and a master's, with a concentration in nutrition, from Tufts University in Medford.
In 1947, she entered the Sisters of Providence, a long established area community whose ministry has concentrated in health care, social services and human services.
Geary served as president of Mercy Medical Center from 1977 through 1993, where the cancer center is named in her honor, and where she started what is believed to be the first hospitalists program in the country.
Hospitalists are physicians whose primary professional focus is the care of hospitalized patients.
At the age of 75, Geary played a played a major role in the planning and transitioning of her congregation's former Providence Motherhouse in Holyoke into Providence Place, a 120-unit rental apartment retirement community for active, independent elders that opened in 1999.
She spearheaded the building construction of innovative Mary's Meadow, a skilled nursing care facility on the Providence Place campus that opened in 2009.
She chaired Springfield's Task Force on Elder Affairs and the Springfield Council on Aging in 2005.
She also served on the advisory committee on healthcare of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, from 2002 to 2008.
In 1993, Geary was one of the Catholic Health Association's 10 designees, joining a contingent of 200 healthcare providers from throughout the country, who met at the White House to discuss the status of health care legislation with President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton.
"I remember healthcare before Medicare and Medicaid when those who were old or
poor had little or no access to healthcare and in many cases sub-par healthcare," she said in a 2011 interview.
Geary is featured in The Republican's book, "The Irish Legacy: A History of the Irish in Western Massachusetts," the related exhibit that ends Aug. 25 at Lyman and Merrie Wood Museum of Springfield History.
The following is an excerpt Cori Urban's profile of her and her community in the book:
"The Sisters of Providence of Holyoke are part of a worldwide religious order founded by Emilie Gamelin, a young widow in Montreal, in 1843.
"The first Sisters came to Holyoke in 1873 from Kingston, Ontario (where there was a large Irish population). They served the immigrant and the poor in a variety of capacities, caring for the sick, the orphan, the unwed mother.
"Their network of hospitals is now Catholic Health East's Sisters of Providence Health System in Springfield. Their other ministries include Genesis Spiritual Life Center in Westfield, Providence Ministries for the Needy in Holyoke and Providence Place, also in Holyoke.
"Geary said the Sisters of Providence 'have always been known as risk takers' as they responded to the needs of their times, and the lives of Irish-born sisters attest to that tradition.
"'It took a lot of courage to come across the ocean in the years they were coming' in the early part of the 20th century, she said. 'They took a risk to come, and they didn't know a lot about this country.'"
"Most of those who were born in Ireland discerned their religious vocation here in the United States; some had relatives already in the congregation when they entered.
"'They were all so deeply spiritual,' said Geary, of the women who would have worn the long traditional habits and often prayed the rosary around their waist. 'They spent hours and hours in prayer. It was just work and prayer.'"
"She added that many of the Irish-born Sisters came from an agrarian background, and their spirituality was influence by it.
"'They didn't know the word 'ecology,' but they had a great respect for the Earth,'" Geary said.
Related: www.masslive.com/living/index.ssf/2011/03/celebrating_international_womens_day_with_geary_going_strong_at_87.html