Sister Dolores Ritter
Current ministry location – Monrovia, CA
Dolores Ritter was born December 10, 1928 in Dresden, Kansas to Minnie (Kruse) Ritter and Ben Ritter. She had 3 sisters: Florence, Bernadine and Alfreda and 7 brothers: Victor, Cletus, Dennis, Francis, Raymond, Seraphim and Sylvester. She graduated from Leoville Rural High School in 1946 in Leoville, KS. Sister Dolores acquired her degree as a registered nurse in 1951 from St. Mary’s Hospital School of Nursing in Manhattan, KS and worked as a graduate nurse at St. Catherine of Siena Hospital in McCook, Nebraska.
Dolores entered the Maryknoll Sisters January 1, 1952 at the novitiate in Valley Park, MO. She professed First Vows September 8, 1954 in Valley Park and Final vows September 8, 1960 in Monrovia, CA.
After her first profession, Sister Dolores was assigned to the Maryknoll Sisters Tuberculosis Sanatorium in Monrovia from 1955 – 1966. She served as a specialist in chest surgery for 11 years. Sister Dolores returned to the Maryknoll Sisters Residential Care in NY in 1966 to offer her nursing services. At this time, Sister Dolores earned a Bachelor of Science in Public Health Nursing in 1972 from Boston College, Boston, MA.
In 1972, Sister Dolores received her first overseas mission assignment to the island of Yap in the Micronesian area of the Central Pacific. Sister was Supervisor of the Public Health Program in the Yap District Hospital. Of her experience there, Sister Dolores said, “My time in Yap was an in-depth introduction to the cultures of the isolated, undeveloped tiny islands of the vast Pacific.”
After four years of service to the people of Yap, Sister Dolores was assigned to the Marshall Islands, where her ministry focused on community health and natural family planning.
Sister Dolores returned home in 1982 for family ministry, caring for her mother until 1989.
In 1990, Sister Dolores returned to the Central Pacific and “the big island” of Hawaii for 19 years. Her ministries were in Hilo and Lihue serving in Food Banks, and in Pahala, Sister Dolores volunteered in parish ministries attending to the elderly, tutoring, and hospice work.
In 2008, Sister Dolores was assigned to the Maryknoll Sisters Retirement house in Monrovia, California.