WILTON, Conn. — Sister Rita McGetrick (Sister Saint Rita Maureen) died peacefully on Sunday, June 10, 2018 at Lourdes Health Care Center in Wilton, Conn. She was born in Providence to Joseph Thomas McGetrick and Helen (Smith) McGetrick. For more than 60 years she was involved in education in Rhode Island, New York, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts and Ohio. She began her education at St. Mary’s School in Providence, then for high school went on to St. Mary’s Academy, also in Providence, graduating in 1942.
In 1945, Sister Rita entered the Novitiate of the Congregation de Notre Dame in Montreal, made her first profession of vows in 1947, and her perpetual vows in August, 1953. Her first teaching assignment was in Notre Dame School in Chicago. From there she went to St. Columba School in New York, then to St. Paschal Baylon School in Cleveland, Ohio. After eight years in Connecticut at Waterbury Catholic High School, where she taught Religion and Business Education classes, Sister Rita returned to New York as Superior and Principal of St. Jean-Baptiste High School, then also returned to Chicago as Superior and Principal of Notre Dame School.
Her next three assignments were in Providence at O’Rourke’s Children Center at St. Mary’s Academy of the Visitation, serving as bookkeeper and business teacher, and at LaSalle Academy for business education. In 1985, Sister Rita went to Bristol Community College in Brattleboro, Mass., where she taught adults in the Business Department. When she retired in 2007, she volunteered at Saints Rose & Clement Parish, Warwick.
In 2013, Sister Rita went to the CND retirement home in Yonkers, N.Y., where her special prayer assignment was for three CND schools in New York City. Four years later she moved to Lourdes Health Care facility in Wilton, Conn., where she prayed especially for graduates of her alma mater, St. Mary’s Academy of the Visitation in Providence.
Sister Rita was predeceased by her parents and several siblings and will be deeply missed by her sister Mary Smith, by many nieces and nephews and by her CND family. A wake and funeral were held on June 15 at Villa Notre Dame in Wilton, Conn.
