Sister Stephen Brueggeman, PHJC died June 15, 2014 at the Catherine Kasper Home, Donaldson, Indiana. She was born Frances Josephine Brueggeman to Anthony and Helen (Dunkel) Brueggeman in Centralia, Illinois.

In 1945 she entered the Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ congregation in Donaldson, Indiana and professed first vows on June 24, 1947.

Sr. Stephen was a graduate of Loyola University, Chicago with a B.SN.ED (Cum Laude) and a M. ED with a major in Education and a minor in Psychology. She also attended Cornell University for Hospital Administration and Wright Junior College for Accounting and Economics.

She began her ministry in healthcare in 1945 as a nurse at St. Anne’s Hospital, Chicago, a Poor Handmaid hospital. For the next 24 years she worked at St. Anne’s as a nurse, director of the nursing school and hospital administrator. After leaving St. Anne’s Hospital she ministered at St. Catherine Hospital, East Chicago, Indiana for 10 years as the hospital administrator.

Sister Stephen was a lobbyist for the Illinois Nursing Association after she impulsively got up during a Nurses Association meeting and defended the three-year hospital schools of nursing. She said she spent many hours in Springfield, Illinois legislature not only working to pass a new Nurse Practice Act, but also other legislative maters.

Sister Stephen served as the PHJC Provincial Superior of the American Province from 1979-1985.

After leaving office she returned to St. Catherine Hospital as Coordinator, Mission and Philosophy Education and then as Vice President of Mission Effectiveness at Ancilla Systems Incorporated, Hobart, Indiana. In 1997 she served the PHJC community, wrote a series of books on the history of the Poor Handmaids and volunteered her time at Nazareth Home. She was a wonderful storyteller and writer.

She retired to the Catherine Kasper Home in 2012.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ, PO Box 1, Donaldson, IN 46513.