Sister Joan Marie Recker

News story
By Mark Zaborney
Blade Staff Writer

Sister Joan Marie Recker, who had leadership roles throughout her decades with the Sisters of Notre Dame, died Sunday in Rosary Care Center, Sylvania. She was 83.

Formerly known as Sister Mary Josef, she had been in declining health, Sister Anne Mary Molyet said. Sister Joan Marie became a resident in 2021 of St. Clare Commons, an assisted living and care community in Perrysburg, and most recently of Rosary Care Center.

She returned to northwest Ohio in 2011 after a dozen years in Rome as an elected member of the Sisters of Notre Dame general council. At the sisters' Lial Renewal Center in Whitehouse she conducted retreats and did spiritual direction. Out of her prayerfulness flowed her ministry.

"She really was a contemplative," Sister Anne Mary said.

Joan Marie Recker was born Aug. 18, 1950, to Agnes and Joseph Recker, the fourth of what would be eight children and grew up on a farm near Leipsic, Ohio.

"I believe she had a natural contemplative spirit," Sister Anne Mary said. "Being on the farm with her dad and mom and older siblings, she just really thrived in nature. I think because of the sensitive personality she was early on able to discern God's call to her."

Her parents were active in St. Mary Parish in Leipsic, and before she was old enough to attend, she saw her siblings going off to the parish school, her youngest sibling, Mary Jo Hermiller, said.

"She said she wanted to be a sister when she was 4 or 5 years old. It was something that was a calling for her her whole life," Mrs. Hermiller said. "She looked at those nuns at St. Mary's School and wanted to be them."

After completing eighth grade, she went to Notre Dame Academy and became an aspirant to the community. She professed her vows as a sister in 1960 and taught for a year at Christ the King School in Toledo. She then became aspirant directress, in which she helped the girls learn how to pray.

"She really fostered in them a love for God and a love for the scriptures," Sister Anne Mary said.

Sister Joan Marie taught theology at Notre Dame Academy and the former Notre Dame Extension College from 1964-74. She became directress for her community's postulants in 1974 and the novices in 1976.

"It was helping the young women understand religious life," said Sister Anne Mary, for whom Sister Joan Marie was novice directress in 1978. "The thing that made her exceptional was she could articulate and live the spirit of the congregation, and her great love for the word of God allowed her to impart that love to others."

Sister Joan Marie had a bachelor's degree from the former Mary Manse College in Toledo. She later received a master of theology degree from St. John's University, Collegeville, Minn., and a certificate in spiritual direction from the Jesuit Retreat Center in Wernersville, Pa.

She became superior of the Toledo Province of the sisters in 1988, a position she held for nine years.

"She was very caring," said Sister Joanne Mary Frania, who was assistant superior. "She had a great love for God, for the congregation, for religious life, for the mission of the community. She was innovative."

In 1999, she was named by the late Bishop James Hoffman to a position he'd previously held - chancellor of the Diocese of Toledo. She became the first woman in a role that a priest had traditionally held. She stepped down after three months, when the Sisters of Notre Dame elected her to serve on the congregation's general council in Rome.

"I always said if she was not a nun and she went into a business role, she would be a vice president, a CEO," Mrs. Hermiller said.

As a member of the general council, she traveled to meet Sisters of Notre Dame in their ministries across the globe.

"She thoroughly enjoyed that, learning new cultures and seeing how the spirit of the Sisters of Notre Dame was being articulated," Sister Anne Mary said.

When in Rome, she eagerly gave visiting friends, relatives, and members of her community a tour of holy and historical sites.

She was known as a nonjudgmental listener to her large extended family of nieces and nephews.

"She had an open heart for everybody," Mrs. Hermiller said. Sister Joanne Mary added: "She respected you as the person you were."

And she had a playful spirit.

"She could laugh and have a good time and be competitive with a game of pinochle," Sister Anne Mary said. "She told us as novices that the one who plays well can pray well, and the one who can pray well can play well."

Surviving are her brothers Charles Recker, Thomas Recker, and Mark Recker, and sisters Jeanette Kimmet, Suzanne Palte, and Mary Jo Hermiller.

Visitation will begin at 2 p.m. Friday at Christ the King Church, where a eulogy will begin at 4:15 p.m. and the funeral Mass at 4:30 p.m. Arrangements are by the Urbanski Funeral Home.

Tributes are suggested to the Sisters of Notre Dame, 1656 Henthorne Dr., Suite 200, Maumee, 43537.