Sister Rose Corde McCormick, M.M. Maryknoll Sister for 69 Years, Dies

Maryknoll, NY: Sister Rose Corde McCormick, M.M. educator and pastoral care worker died on July 31st, 2022 at the Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, NY. She was 98 years old and had been a Maryknoll Sister for 69 years.

Rose was born in Providence, RI on August 30th, 1923 to William McCormick and Rose (Coyle) McCormick. She had two sisters, Agnes and Helen and two brothers, Thomas and William, all of whom have pre-deceased her.

In 1940, Rose graduated from St. Patrick’s High School in Providence, RI. Before entering the Congregation, she was employed by the New England Telephone Company from 1939-1953 and then entered the Maryknoll Sisters Novitiate in Maryknoll, NY on September 2nd, 1953. At her reception into the Congregation, she received the religious name, Sister Rose Corde. She pronounced her First Vows on March 7th, 1956 in Maryknoll, NY and her Final Vows on March 7th, 1962 in Japan.

From 1956-1957, she worked as a staff member at the Maryknoll Magazine Office for The Field Afar, (now known as the Maryknoll Magazine), before being assigned to serve as Secretary to the Vicar General of the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers until 1959.

Sister Rose Corde received her first overseas mission assignment to Japan in 1959. Upon her arrival, she completed language study in Kyoto and then served as Parish Minister in several different communities from 1961-1964. She then returned to Kyoto where she taught English and worked in Congregational Administration until 1968.  That same year she returned to Maryknoll, NY to continue her education and in just three years she earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Mary Rogers College located at the Maryknoll Sisters Center, Maryknoll, NY.

Sister Rose Corde went back to Japan to teach English and Christian Ethics at the Yokkachi Girls School. During this time, she also taught English to adults in the local communities from 1971-1976. She then returned to the Maryknoll Sisters Center, Maryknoll, NY where she managed the Congregation’s Direct Mail Office from 1977-1979.

In 1980, she accepted an invitation to teach at St. Mary’s School on the Island of Yap, Micronesia, in the Central Pacific. She later became Principal where she served until 1992. Then in 1995 she went to Honolulu, Hawaii to serve as the Sisters’ regional secretary and bookkeeper.

In 1996, Sister Rose Corde found herself once again at the Maryknoll Sisters Center, Maryknoll, NY where she was appointed Director of Pastoral Care in the Sisters residential care unit until 1999. Later that year she was assigned to Oaxaca, Mexico where she taught English and did pastoral work with women until 2003.

Sister Rose Corde then returned to the Maryknoll Sisters Center, Maryknoll, NY where she remained an active volunteer. She spent her time serving as a sacristan in the main chapel and as a companion to ill and elderly Sisters, until she fully retired in 2019.

Funeral Services:

A Vespers service will be held for Sister Rose Corde on Monday, August 8th, 2022 at 4:15 p.m. in the Chapel of the Annunciation at the Maryknoll Sisters Center, Maryknoll, NY.

A Mass of the Resurrection will be held on Tuesday, August 9th, 2022 at 10:00 a.m. also at the Maryknoll Sisters Center. Burial will follow in the Sisters cemetery.