Sister Mary Ellene Egan, RSM
Sister Mary Ellene Egan, RSM, died in Burlingame, CA, on June 15, 2013, at the age of 66. Born in San Francisco, Ellene Marie was the younger of the two children of James Egan, a San Francisco policeman, and Thelma Hennig Egan. She attended St. Cecilia Elementary School and Mercy High School, graduating in 1964. Ellene entered the Sisters of Mercy that same year, taking the name Sister Mary Ellene and professing her vows in 1967. She continued her education earning a B.A. from Russell College in 1969, then a B.S. from USF in 1971.
That same year Ellene began her nursing ministry at Mercy Hospital, San Diego, as a nursing supervisor. In 1977 she began studies for a Master's Degree in nursing at Loma Linda University, earning her degree in 1979; in the fall of that year she began 33 years of ministry on the faculty of the University of San Francisco School of Nursing and Health Professions. Teaching and mentoring student nurses was a ministry she threw herself into with energy and great dedication.