Mary Ann (Marie Andrew) Untener, IHM

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UNTENER-MARY-ANN-96Sister Mary Ann Untener, IHM, 90, died Thursday, Dec. 21 in the IHM Health Care Center, Monroe.

Mary Ann Untener was born in Detroit on Nov. 26, 1927, to Andrew and Ann (Kraynak) Untener. The family of four daughters and five sons lived on Belle Isle and attended St. Rita and St. Charles parishes and schools. After graduating from St. Charles High School, Mary Ann entered the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (Monroe) and received the religious name Sister Marie Andrew.

Sister Mary Ann attended Marygrove College, earning a bachelor’s degree and later a master’s degree in education. She began her early teaching career at the elementary level at St. Raymond, St. Mary of Redford and Blessed Sacrament, Detroit; Sacred Heart, Roseville; Our Lady Star of the Sea, Grosse Pointe; and Immaculate Heart of Mary, Minnetonka, Minn. She served as principal at Immaculata Girls High School and Epiphany Elementary School in Detroit.

Sister Mary Ann excelled as a teacher’s teacher and provided instruction in teacher education at the University of Detroit in the early 1970s. As changes in the Church occurred, she was called to enter a new ministry of chaplaincy and pastoral ministry. Sister Mary Ann studied and became a certified chaplain and ministered at Bon Secours Hospital, Grosse Pointe; Our Lady of Sorrows Parish, Farmington, Mich.; and at Harper Hospital through the Archdiocese of Detroit.

Service to her community was a value held by Sister Mary Ann. For more than 10 years, she served as assistant provincial and in congregational leadership; as coordinator of ministry and later as volunteer staff in the IHM Archives, where she championed computer research. After a year of renewal in 1995, Sister Mary Ann served in several capacities at the Archdiocese of Detroit Department of Religious Education and the Children’s Creativity Center, Monroe.

Sister Mary Ann moved to Monroe in 2000 while working in the Archives Office. In 2005, she became a resident of the Motherhouse and continued various volunteer works within the community.

Sister Mary Ann is survived by brothers Robert, Thomas and Richard; by sisters Rita Dwyer and Therese Weigand; many nieces and nephews and her sisters in community. She was preceded in death by brothers, Andrew and Bishop Kenneth Untener; and her sister Alice.

Read her Remembering.