Maryknoll, NY: Sister Dolores A. Ritter died on July 14, 2023 at the Maryknoll Sisters Center, Maryknoll, NY. She was 95 years old and a Maryknoll Sister for 71 years.

On December 10, 1928, Sister Dolores A. Ritter was born in Dresden, Kansas to Minnie (Kruse) and Ben Ritter.  She had seven brothers and three sisters; her sister, Mrs. Bernadine Spresser, survives her.

From 1942 – 1946 Sister Dolores attended Leoville Rural High School in Kansas. She then attended Marymount in Salina, Kansas for one semester for pre-clinical classes.  In 1951, she enrolled at St. Mary’s Hospital School of Nursing in Manhattan, Kansas, where she graduated as a Registered Nurse. In 1961, she studied at Mt. San Antonio Jr. College for an Inhalation Therapy Course.  She attended Boston College, Boston, Massachusetts from 1969 to 1972 earning a Bachelor of Science in Public Health Nursing.  Sister Dolores entered the Maryknoll Sisters on February 1, 1952, in Valley Park, Missouri from her home parish of Immaculate Conception, Salina, Kansas.    She pronounced her First Profession of Vows on September 8, 1954, in Valley Park, Missouri, and her Final Vows on September 8, 1960, in Monrovia, California.

In 1955, she received her first mission assignment to Monrovia, California, where she worked as a nurse with Tuberculosis patients.  Between the years of 1963 and 1972, Sister Dolores was back and forth between Monrovia, California, and Maryknoll, New York working at the Motherhouse in the infirmary.

In 1972, she was assigned to Yap in the Central Pacific Region working as a Supervisor for a Public Health Program at the Yap District Hospital until 1976.  She moved to the Marshal Islands in 1977 as an administrator in Community Health and Natural Family Planning until 1981.  In 1982-1991, she went home to Kansas to care for her mother. In 1991, she returned to the Central Pacific Region, this time in Hilo, Hawaii.  Here she worked at the Island Food Bank for six years before moving to Pahala, Hawaii.  In Pahala, she worked in the parish as a choir member, a lector and also attended Women’s Club meetings.  She also taught at Pahala Elementary School in the Foster Grandparents Program and worked in Special Education until 1998.  Sister Dolores moved back to Hilo, Hawaii in 1999 to 2005 working as a clerical volunteer at Huliau Okau Resource Center and as a hospice volunteer.

In 2008, Sister returned to Monrovia, California to retire, and in 2018, she came back to the Maryknoll Sisters Center, Maryknoll, NY where she stayed until her death on July 14, 2023.

Funeral Services:

A Vespers Service will be held for Sister Dolores Ritter on Monday, July 24, 2023 at 4:15 p.m. in the Chapel of the Annunciation at the Maryknoll Sisters Center, Maryknoll, NY.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be held on Tuesday, July 25, 2023 at 10:00 A.M. at the Maryknoll Sisters Center.