Rosalie Elaine L'Ecuyer

1933 - 2022

Rosalie Elaine L'Ecuyer died on July 3, 2022. She was 88 years old.

Rosalie was born in the Dorchester section of Boston on Nov. 8, 1933, the third daughter of Eugene W. L'Ecuyer and Eleanor Carey Creed L'Ecuyer. When she was 6 months old, the family moved to West Roxbury. She attended the Sophia W. Ripley School, which no longer exists, and later graduated in the class of 1951 from Girls Latin School, the same alma mater of her mother and sisters Eleanor and Virginia.

She received her undergraduate degree from Regis College, class of 1955, and later earned separate graduate degrees at Georgetown University in government and at the University of Alaska Fairbanks in professional writing. She also studied two years for a certificate in Lay Ministry from the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C.

Rosalie lived 25 years in the D.C. area, residing for most years in Arlington, Virginia, while working for the Department of Defense at Fort George G. Meade, Maryland. She arrived in Alaska in August 1980 and spent eight years as a full-time volunteer for the Catholic Diocese of Fairbanks, serving in Bethel, Mountain Village and St Marys. She moved to Fairbanks in July 1988.

In Fairbanks, she was employed by Denakkanaaga for nine years. She also taught history and English through the University of Alaska system at Fort Wainwright and at Eielson Air Force Base and instructed four correspondence courses for the Center for Distance Education. She occasionally did independent contract work for Epicenter Press, Athabascan Designs and others as sole proprietor of Red Pen Enterprises.

Throughout her life, Rosalie was involved in various Catholic ministries and community organizations. Most recently, she was active in the Sacred Heart Cathedral parish, NARFE Chapter 2076, Osher Life Long Learning at UAF and the Tanana-Yukon Historical Society.

She cherished family, former classmates and friends in Alaska, on the East Coast and elsewhere and had fond memories of those who had gone before her. She was exceedingly grateful to God for her life.

A funeral service will take place Monday, Aug. 1, 2022, at Sacred Heart Cathedral, 1300 Peger Road, with a prayer service at 11:30 a.m. followed by Funeral Mass at noon then an ice cream social in the Social Hall and burial at Birch Hill Cemetery.

No flowers, please. Expressions of sympathy may be sent to the Catholic Bishop of Northern Alaska (CBNA), 1316 Peger Road, Fairbanks, AK 99709.