Alice Montgomery

Sr Alice Montgomery, (Mary Pius) RSM

Sister Alice Montgomery died on Monday, January 20, 2019 at the age of 100 at Mercy Retirement and Care Center, Oakland. Born in Ferndale, CA, the youngest of the eleven children of Felix Montgomery and Margaret Friel Montgomery, Alice grew up in Ferndale and Eureka attending Nazareth Academy and Eureka High School. She then attended St. Mary's School of Nursing in San Francisco where she met the Sisters of Mercy, and a few years after graduation entered the convent in Burlingame. Taking the religious name Sister Mary Pius, she professed her vows in 1943 and began a sixty-year ministry in obstetrical nursing, hospital planning, and patient outreach. The first six years of her ministry were spent as nursing supervisor in pediatrics at Mercy Hospital, San Diego and St. Mary's Hospital, San Francisco; and the next four years as local superior of the sisters' community at St. Joseph's Hospital, Phoenix. She was then called on to assist in the planning and construction of new buildings at Mercy Hospitals in San Diego and Bakersfield, and additional buildings on the Mercy Motherhouse Campus in Burlingame. In 1965 Sister Alice began an eighteen-year ministry in obstetrics and neonatal care at St. Joseph's Hospital, Phoenix, initiating a Division of Reproductive Medicine and developing a state-wide seminar on the care of the premature infant, and inaugurating a system of neonatal transport in Arizona. She received several awards for her pioneering work. Sister Alice returned to St. Mary's Hospital, San Francisco in 1984 and spent the next ten years as coordinator of the Lifeline Personal Response System, providing a way for those who live alone or have need of assistance to obtain help in an emergency. Sister then continued serving Lifeline as a volunteer, and also started ministering in St. Peter' Parish, San Francisco, as a family visitor. In 2003 Sister retired to Marian Oaks Life Center in Burlingame, then spent her final years at Mercy Retirement and Care Center in Oakland. She is survived by a large and loving family and her community of Mercy sisters. A vigil service will be held on Thursday January 31 at 7:00 p.m. in the Mercy Convent Chapel, 2300 Adeline Drive, Burlingame; the Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Friday February 1 at 10:30 a.m. Burial at Holy Cross Cemetery, Colma, will follow that afternoon. Memorial gifts may be made to the Sisters of Mercy, 2300 Adeline Drive, Burlingame, CA 94010.