Lillian McIntyre has been called a “crusader for all that is good in Catholic education.”
For more than 50 years, McIntyre has worked tirelessly in service to children across the Diocese of Providence. Over the course of her career she has taught at four different schools in the diocese, served as principal at two, while also serving as a board member of three schools.
At the diocesan level, McIntyre has served as assistant superintendent in the Catholic Schools Office and as a collaborator on many of its projects. She has also worked closely with the Office of Catholic Youth Ministry. She continues to serve students and their families as a consultant to the Catholic Schools Office as an advocate for school choice.
“Few individuals have served in so many ways for so many years to support Catholic education,” her nomination for the Lumen Gentium Lifetime Achievement Award in Catholic Education states.
A resident of Scituate and parishioner of St. Philip Church in Greenville, where she has served as a catechist, Eucharistic minister and parish auditor, McIntyre earned a bachelor’s degree in secondary education from Rhode Island College and a master’s degree in religious studies from Providence College.
She began her career at St. Mark School in Cranston in 1966, before moving to St. Mary School in Cranston. She took a break from the classroom to teach C.C.D. and serve as the Girl Scout leader for her church.
She then ran the parish religious education program at St. Clement Parish in Warwick for six years, crediting then-pastor Father Richard Donnelly, and Father Paul Grenon for their tremendous support of her teaching ministry.
“I learned from the best, I really did. I had great mentors,” she said. “I absolutely loved my teaching.”
She then taught K-6 religion at St. Ann School, in Providence, before becoming principal of St. Philip School, Greenville, where she served from 1993-2004.
“It was a special grace and blessing that I was able to be there at St. Philip — it was the longest of any place I had been in my ministry,” she recalled.
Born in Providence and raised in Johnston, in a large Italian family with nine brothers and sisters, Lillian has been married to her husband, Joseph McIntyre, for more than 54 years. They raised two daughters and a son, and are the proud grandparents of six grandsons.
