Ossining, N.Y., July 10, 2026 ── Sister Marian Teresa Dury, M.M., a Maryknoll Sister of 73 years with unwavering faith and generosity, died on July 1, 2026. She was 105.
Sr. Marian was born on December 24, 1920, in New Bedford, Mass., to Ann Flynn Dury and Thomas Dury. She had two brothers and one sister, all of whom predeceased her.
In 1938, Sr. Marian graduated from Holy Family High School and began studying at Seton Hill College in Greensville, Pa., where she would earn a Bachelor of Science in biology in 1942. She went on to complete a Master of Nursing degree at Yale University in New Haven, Conn., in 1945.
Sr. Marian worked as a staff nurse in the Army Nurse Corps of the United States from 1945 to 1946, travelling between Korea and the Philippines on a hospital ship. In 1946, she worked as a nurse and clinical instructor at Deaconess Hospital in Boston, Mass., for two years. This experience inspired her to continue her education, earning a Master of Science in nursing education from the Catholic University of America in 1949. She then taught as an associate professor of nursing at the Catholic University of America, Louisiana State University and Boston College. Sr. Marian later received a certificate in midwifery at the General Nursing Council of England and Wales in 1968. During her time in Boston, Sr. Marian discovered the opening of a Maryknoll Sisters novitiate in Topsfield, Mass., where she entered on September 2, 1953. She made her first vows on March 7, 1956, and final vows on the same date in 1962.
In 1956, Sr. Marian was assigned her first mission, where she worked with women in Tanzania. She was one of the founders of its first secondary school for girls, Marian College, which offered a well-rounded education and a variety of extracurricular clubs. After overseeing the school for a decade, Sr. Marian returned to the United States for renewal and to work in fundraising at the Maryknoll Sisters Center in Ossining, N.Y. Upon her return to Tanzania in 1970, Sr. Marian began a new ministry with the Buhangija, Shinyanga Diocese as the administrator and midwife at the Mary Mahoney Dispensary and Clinic. She worked with sisters and staff to treat 250 patients on average each day, administering a 12-bed antenatal clinic, a 12-bed maternity clinic, as well as mobile maternal and child health clinics that served nine different villages.
After serving as head nurse and administrator in the Center’s infirmary from 1973 until 1976, Sr. Marian returned to Tanzania as part of the Medical Missionary of Mary Sisters. There, she shifted her focus to community health, training health workers as the maternal and child health coordinator of the Hanang Village Health Project. From 1981 until 1991, she served as regional coordinator of the Tanzanian Region, Coordinator of the Maryknoll Sisters World Section House in Nairobi, Kenya, and as a staff member of the VEMA Health Project in Kalebejo, Tanzania.
Sr. Marian returned to the Center in 1991 to serve in the Communications Department for two years, before being appointed as co-coordinator of the Main House Council, where she served for six years as a welcoming and dedicated presence to her Sister community.
She returned to Tanzania for a final time in 2000, teaching English to young women. Sr. Marian was awarded the Seton Hill College Distinguished Alumna Leadership Award in 2002, which described her as, “an educator and missionary, and woman of determination and unwavering faith.”
The Maryknoll Sisters would like to thank Sr. Marian for her decades of generosity and loving service to our One Earth Community.
A wake for Sr. Marian was held on July 6, 2026, in the Annunciation Chapel of the Maryknoll Sisters Center in Ossining, N.Y. A Mass of Resurrection was said for Sr. Marian on July 7, 2026, also in the Annunciation Chapel.