Sister Mary Jean Rogoszewski, born in Saginaw, Mich. on Sept. 30, 1930, entered eternal life Feb. 18. Sister Jean was 85 years old and 67 years in religious life. Baptized Joan, on Oct. 3, 1930 in Holy Rosary Church, Saginaw, she was the seventh of thirteen children born to John and Agnes (Wiacek).
Joan attended Holy Rosary Elementary School in Saginaw, was accepted into Felician Academy in Detroit, and entered the Felician Congregation on June 26, 1948. She was invested with the habit the following year and received the name Sister Mary Pia, later changed to Jean. First profession of vows was in 1950 and final profession on Aug.12, 1956.
Sister Jean earned a B.A. from Madonna University in Livonia, Mich., and attended workshops and courses at Michigan State and St. Louis University Institute of Child Care School of Social Service. Her first assignment at Corpus Christi School in Detroit was followed by appointments to St. Andrew, Resurrection, St. Stephen, Patronage of St. Joseph, and Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary – all in Detroit; St. Stanislaus, Jackson and St. Stanislaus, Bay City.
From 1962-1971, Sister Jean was assigned to St. Joseph Home for Boys in Jackson, Mich., as care giver, superior and administrative assistant to the director, and was instrumental in seeing the new building established in 1969 on Porter Street.
In 1974, Sister Jean was assigned to Madonna University where she became the assistant and then fulltime manager of the bookstore. When the bookstore came under a new business arrangement, Sister Jean was appointed to the Madonna University Library. She retired to the Central Convent in 2011 and was permanently assigned to St. Joseph Care Center Covent in 2013.
On Feb. 15, 2016, Sister Mary Jean suffered a heart attack and was admitted to St. Mary Mercy Hospital in Livonia. Transferred the next day to William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, she died on Feb. 18 and slipped peacefully into God’s eternal embrace. She is survived by two brothers, Bernard and Thomas, and many nieces and nephews and grandnieces and grandnephews.
20160222Feb. 24 at 11 a.m. Rev. Timothy Babcock, chaplain, celebrated the Mass of Resurrection at the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Chapel of the Felician Sisters’ Central Convent in Livonia. Burial was in Holy Sepulcher Cemetery, Southfield, Mich.
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