Sister Joel Read remembered as visionary with a personal touch
Inspiration. Innovator. Angel. Those were just a few of the words used Thursday to remember longtime Alverno College leader Sister Joel Read.
“One of the things she always said was ‘You can create your own future, just go after your dreams,’” Sister Celestine Schall of Alverno College told the crowd that gathered for a vigil before her funeral. “Use the talents that you have.”
Read fiercely pursued her dreams as she led her alma mater on Milwaukee’s south side for some 35 years. The women’s college is a reflection of her trailblazing approach, and her influence reached far beyond campus.
Many of those who spoke at her vigil service were former students and colleagues.
Arlene McLaurin, a 1984 Alverno graduate, described how Read met her while she was an employee at Northwestern Mutual — and decided she should go to college.
“Behind me, she goes to my high school to get my transcripts and enrolls me in weekend college!” McLaurin said to laughter.
Many spoke of how Read was always tirelessly looking ahead to the next project and the future, and encouraging others to do the same.
“The first question she said to me, in her very matter of fact way, was, “Shemagne, what’s your vision for the future? What does it look like if this is successful?” said Shemagne O’Keefe Mullins, who now works for the Creative Arts Academy of the Quad Cities.
Read also was remembered for her interest in, and high expectations for, her students.
Peg Rauschenberger, who now serves as the dean of Alverno’s School of Nursing, told of how Read joined her for lunch in the commons and asked what she was doing. Rauschenberger told her she was trying to come up with an opinion about something she didn’t know much about.
“So, she looked at me and said, ‘Go to the library and find out!’ ” Rauschenberger said. “And I said OK. I didn’t finish my lunch. She said it, I did it.”
Read, a native of Chicago, was a member of the School Sisters of St. Francis since 1945. Her vigil and funeral were held at the order’s St. Joseph Chapel on S. Layton Blvd.