Sr. Purissima Babinski
Primary grades teacher

Franciscan Sister M. Purissima (Valeria) Babinksi, 85, died July 15 at the motherhouse of the Franciscan Sisters of Chicago, Lemont. Sister Purissima spent 41 years teaching in the primary grades, including an assignment at Five Holy Martyrs School.

Carl A. Rom
World War II veteran

A funeral Mass for Carl A. Rom was offered July 19 at St. Pascal Church, where he was a longtime parishioner. Principal celebrant was his son, Father Gregory A. Rom, pastor of St. Isidore the Farmer Parish, Blue Island. Mr. Rom, 83, died July 15 at Resurrection Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Park Ridge. An Army Air Force veteran of World War II, he was retired after working in the electronics field. Mr. Rom is survived by his wife, Dorothy; four daughters, Patricia Paustian, Marialice Wagner, Jeanmarie and Margaret Kukec; three other sons, Paul, Jim and Stephen; 12 grandchildren; a sister, Lillian Roberts; and a brother, Harold.

Sr. Agnes Stauner
Taught in archdiocese School

Sister of St. Francis Agnes (Amalia) Stauner, 93, died July 17 in Fond du Lac, Wis. She was retired after teaching for more than 50 years. Her assignments included Our Lady of Victory in Chicago and Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Glenview.

Sr. Eileen Marie Brost
Teacher, counselor

School Sister of St. Francis Eileen Marie (Engelharda) Brost, 92, died July 18 in Campbellsport, Wis. A teacher for 42 years in Wisconsin and Illinois, she taught in the at St. Clara, Immaculate Conception, Blessed Agnes and St. Benedict in Chicago and Our Lady Perpetual Hope in Glenview She also served as religious education coordinator at St. Anne, Barrington, as a guidance counselor at St. Philomena and as a pastoral minister at St. Albert the Great Parish, Burbank.

Sr. M. Trzebiatowski
Taught in Chicago

A funeral Mass for St. Joseph Sister Magdalen (Berchmans) Trzebiatowski was offered July 21 at Immaculata Home, Bartlett. Principal celebrant was Father Edwin Bohula, pastor of St. James Parish in Sag Bridge, who had been taught by Sister Magdalen at St. Salomea School in the 1940s.

Sister Magdalen died July 18 at the age of 95. She had been a member of the Sisters of St. Joseph, Third Order of St. Francis, for 80 years. In addition to St. Salomea, other assignments in the archdiocese were at St. Mary of Czestochowa in Cicero, St. Simeon in Bellwood, and Transfiguration, St. Fidelis and St. Mary of Perpetual Help in Chicago.

Sr. M. Frederick Fields
Taught in Chicago

Sister of Providence Mary Frederick (Josephine) Fields, 83, died July 21 at St. Mary-of-the-Woods, Ind. She taught in Chicago in the 1940s at St. Sylvester and Our Lady of Mercy schools.

Sr. M. Georgine
Taught in Chicago

Sister of the Holy Cross M. Georgine (Helen) Strader, 73, died July 23 at St. Mary's Convent in Notre Dame, Ind. A retired elementary and high school teacher, she taught in Chicago at St. Theodore School, 1950-54.

Teacher, secretary

Sister of Christian Charity Adeline (Andrew) Schneider, 74, died July 24 in Evanston Hospital. She had been retired to Sacred Heart Convent in Wilmette since 1979 because of the debilitating effects of multiple sclerosis. Her early assignments included teaching in the primary grades at St. Mary School, Riverdale. She also did secretarial work at the motherhouse in Wilmette and at Josephinum High School, Chicago.

Sr. Margaret Houlihan
Spanish language teacher

BVM Sister Margaret (St. Jude) Houlihan, 90, died July 25 at Caritas Center in Dubuque, Iowa. Her funeral Mass was celebrated Aug. 1 at Mount Carmel Motherhouse in Dubuque, Iowa. Sister Margaret initiated the Spanish Language Program for priests and religious of the Archdiocese of Chicago in 1969. She administered and taught in the program until 1982. Prior to that, she served for five years at the Catholic university in Quito, Ecuador, where she was assistant director of the Institute of Language and Linguistics. Born in Harvard, Ill., she entered the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1927. Her teaching assignments included St. Eulalia in Maywood, Sacred Heart, Blessed Sacrament, Holy Cross and St. Thomas of Canterbury. Surviving is a sister, Mary V. Condon.

Sr. Odilla Bartsch
Taught in Chicago, suburbs

School Sister of St. Francis Odilla Bartsch, 94, died July 26 in Campbellsport,Wis. A teacher for 58 years, she taught at St. Dionysius in Cicero, St. Peter in Skokie and St. Matthias in Chicago.

Deacon William Miles
Served at St. Matthew

A funeral Mass for Deacon William Miles was offered Aug. 6 at St. Matthew Church in Schaumburg by the pastor, Father Joseph Wilk. Deacon Miles, 57, died Aug. 1. Deacon Miles was in his second year of the diaconate formation program when he was diagnosed with cancer this spring. He was ordained a deacon June 11 by Auxiliary Bishop Gerald Kicanas . A native of Connecticut, he had been serving as pastoral associate at St. Matthew for the past three years.

Sr. Betty Dougherty
Retired nurse-midwife

Medical Mission Sister Betty Dougherty, 79, died Aug. 1 in San Diego, Calif. A native of Blue Island, she was a graduate of the Academy of Our Lady, St. Francis Hospital School of Nursing in Peoria and DePaul University. During World War II, she served as an army nurse in France and occupied Germany. In 1946, she joined the Medical Mission Sisters and was missioned for 12 years to Pakistan where she was a nurse-midwife. Returning to the United States, she continued her nurse-midwifery work at St. Vincent Hospital in Philadelphia and then in the Southwest, caring primarily for Native American and Hispanic women. In 1982, she began a second ministry in hospice and bereavement work in San Diego, Calif. Until her recent illness, she served for 12 years at Resurrection Parish in Escondido, Calif

A funeral Mass for Donald A. Massaro, executive director of archdiocesan Catholic Cemeteries, was offered Aug. 13 at Most Holy Redeemer Church, Evergreen Park. Principal celebrant was Father Patrick Pollard, archdiocesan director of Catholic Cemeteries. Bishop Raymond E. Goedert, vicar general, represented Cardinal George.

Mr. Massaro, 69, died Aug. 9 after an extended illness.

Mr. Massaro joined Catholic Cemeteries in 1967 as a service representative. He then held various supervisory positions, including sexton, supervising engineer of fleet maintenance and services and director of operational services. In 1983, he was appointed executive director.

As head of the largest Catholic cemetery system in the United States and Canada, he oversaw 42 cemeteries that employ a staff of more than 300 full-time workers and several hundred seasonal workers. The system averages more than 21,000 interments each year and maintains nearly 2 million graves.

Last year he was honored with the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice Award, the highest papal award that can be given to a layperson.

Mr. Massaro served on the board of directors of the metropolitan Chicago Cemetery Officials and also served as a member of the State of Illinois Cemetery Advisory Board.

Surviving are his wife, Anne; four daughters, Mary Rochelle, Donna Zarate, Annette Graham and Patricia Rompca; nine grandchildren; three great-grandchildren; and a sister, Aileen Goebel.