Obituary of Sr. Patricia Gertrude Gill, SNDeN

Sr. Patricia Gertrude Gill went peacefully home to her Good God on December 3, 2019.  Sr. Patricia was born Anne Theresa Gill in Lowell, MA, the oldest girl of Patrick Francis and Anne Gertrude Kelley Gill’s ten children.  She was born July 26th, 1926:  the Feast of St. Anne, to whom she remained devoted all her life.  She attended school at St. Patrick’s in Lowell, entering the Novitiate in Waltham in 1944.  She earned her BA from Emmanuel College, then an MS in Music Education from Nazareth College in Rochester, NY.

Her first mission was at Our Lady of Presentation in Brighton.  Sr. Patricia went on to teach music at Holy Rosary in Lawrence, Beverly, Beverly Farms, Boston, and St. John’s in Peabody.  At Bishop Stang High School in No. Dartmouth, MA, Sister Patricia founded the school’s marching band, with eighteen students marching in their own school uniforms. 

Sister Patricia Gill instituted the Humanities Program and taught at Notre Dame Academy in Hingham from 1962 – 1972, conducting excellent choral concerts and musical theater productions.  For forty-five years Sr. Patricia truly brought out the best in her pupils, as they made beautiful music together.   

After Hingham and St. Mary’s in Waltham, she served as Superior at St. Mary’s in Lawrence, at Notre Dame du Lac in Worcester, and on the Leadership Team at Ipswich.  She retired to Ipswich in 2003, faithfully visited by former students and devoted family members, and cared for by the dedicated Staff of the St. Julie Billiart Residential Care Center.

Sr. Patricia (Anne Theresa) Gill was predeceased by siblings Daniel Gill, Virginia Maziarz, Frances Kirkpatrick, Barbara Monette, and infant Patricia Gill, whose name she took in religious life.  Survived by brother William Gill, brother John and wife Beverly Gill, sister Gertrude and husband Leonard Brophy, and sister Margaret Latulippe, as well as brother-in-law Bill Monette, and sister-in-law Midge Gill.  Also survived by thirty nieces and nephews, more than sixty great-nieces and nephews and their children, as well as her Sisters in Community, her friends, and generations of former students.

A celebration of Sr. Patricia Gertrude Gill’s life will be held at Mary Queen Chapel in Ipswich, MA, on Friday, December 6:  Wake 12:30 p.m., Prayer Service 1:00 p.m., Funeral Mass 2:00 p.m., followed by burial at Ipswich.  Memorial Donations to the Sisters of Notre Dame, 30 Jeffreys Neck Road, Ipswich, MA  01938.