Sister Patrice Marie Selby, IHM, age 99, died Easter Sunday, April 5, surrounded by her family.
Rose Grace Selby, born Dec. 24, 1926, was one of 10 children in the family born to Patrick and Anastasia (Flowers) Selby of Crooksville, Ohio. The family moved to Akron, where Rose attended St. Rose Elementary School and graduated from St. Vincent High School. She followed her sister Genevieve into membership of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Monroe. Rose entered in 1948 and received the religious name, Sister Patrice Marie.
Sister Patrice earned a bachelor’s degree from Marygrove College and a master’s degree in education from De Paul University, Chicago. Her lifetime of ministries was expansive and many lives were touched through her gifts and presence. Early assignments in education included St. Patrick, Newport; St. Matthew, Flint; St. Mary of Redford, Detroit; St. Felicitas, Chicago; and Immaculate Conception, Akron. She was the principal at St. Mary, Mount Morris and Our Lady Gate of Heaven, Chicago.
Sister Patrice served in congregational governance as treasurer for the South and West Provinces from 1975 to 1982. A period of transition followed as she discerned and returned to studies to prepare for ministry as a counselor and chaplain. She ministered to those challenged by drug and alcohol disorders at Wake County Alcohol Treatment Center and Charter Northridge Hospital, both in Raleigh, North Carolina. In 1986, she co-founded a treatment recovery program at Hanley-Hazelden Center in Florida. Her ministry as a counselor and chaplain endured for over 20 years.
After retirement from formal ministry, she moved to the Motherhouse in 2006. Sister Patrice joined in community education and events and ministered with wisdom and humor among sisters, residents, and staff as a companion, driver and in pastoral care outreach.
Sister Patrice is survived by her sister Marie Ann, nieces and nephews, and her IHM Sisters in community. She was preceded by siblings Sister Paulita, IHM, Catherine, Margaret, Paul, Joseph, Federick, Edward and Thomas.
Read Sister Patrice’s Remembering.