Reflections Magazine Issue #81 - Fall 2014 | Page 27

Feature

Scholar and Mentor, Prankster and
Philosopher, Counselor and Friend
Memories of Sister Pat Hogan, OP
Pat Hogan, OP, aka
Sister John Mary, began
teaching philosophy and
history at Siena Heights
College in 1966. She
went on to chair the
philosophy department
from 1979 until her unexpected death March
13, 1991, while at home
in Chicago on sabbatical.
Pat Hogan’s legendary impact on students
was never more evident than at the 2009 Alumni
Awards ceremony, when three honorees—Tod
Marshall ’90, now a poet and English professor at Gonzaga University; Jacob Chi ’85, now
conductor of the Pueblo Symphony Orchestra
and professor at Colorado State University; and
Gabrielle Davis ’85, a lawyer specializing in
women’s rights—all credited her with helping
them find the right road to their future.
Tod Marshall remembered goofing off and
skipping the reading for his independent study
with Sister Pat—until the day he found her in
the library “bent over her notes and poring over
what we were going to talk about that day.”
Startled to realize how much time and effort
she was putting in “for me—just for me,” Tod
reshaped his attitude. Knowing how committed she was to his education, he said, he “never
again dropped the ball” on his studies.
Jacob Chi was a 28-year-old violinist, without funds and or a place to stay, when he arrived
from China to attend Siena Heights in the early
‘80s. Sister Pat opened her home, as well as her
heart and mind, to the talented musician. “There
is no one in my entire academic life as important
as Sister Pat,” he said recently, and “no other
universities (as important) as Siena Heights.”
Gabrielle Davis was approaching graduation
when Pat Hogan suggested she apply to law
school. When Gabrielle hesitated, she remembers, Sister Pat’s response was prophetic: “She
said, ‘You’ve had a lot of advantages in your life
and you really have an obligation to give back.
I can’t think of a better way to do it than for
you to go to law school and serve the people
who need your help.’” And that’s just what
Gabrielle has done.

When, in the last issue of this magazine, we
invited alumni to share more memories of Sister
Pat Hogan, the responses echoed everything we
heard at that awards ceremony five years ago.
“I had Sister John Mary for philosophy as
a sophomore,” wrote Linda Hansen ’70. Linda
planned to become a high school math teacher
until, in a chance meeting with the Sister, she
mentioned how much she had loved philosophy
and how sorry she was that she couldn’t continue, since math and education left no room in her
schedule. “Sister John Mary urged me not to give
up something I loved so deeply, and I took her
advice,” keeping the math major (in a compromise with her father) but trading education for
a strong philosophy minor. Her father and Sister
John Mary were equally delighted when she was
accepted into the philosophy Ph.D. program at
Marquette University. Linda taught college philosophy for 17 years before changing careers to
become a minister, “where my philosophy background was invaluable. I credit Pat Hogan with
setting me on my true life course, and I remain
more grateful than I can say.”
When John Metzger ’75 arrived at Siena,
he was one of the new male students on campus. “We were hippies, and religious tradition
was so under question—but Sister John Mary
was a beautiful friend (whose) faith and understanding resist description. It was evident to me
and others that she embodied a host of the absolute qualities of human nature, philosophical
and theological, that we discussed in her class.
It was kind of like being taught by a maternal
St. Thomas Aquinas…” Sister Pat helped make
Siena “a super-special place for higher learning,”
he recalls. “The pleasure and value of knowing
her has been secure in my memory” ever since.
“I had the good fortune to take Philosophy
of Person with her and I loved every minute,”
wrote Mary Weeber ’83. “She started every
class by reading from a book called Psalms Now
by a minister who rewrote the psalms to reflect
contemporary life. It was a powerful way to
start the class and the psalm she read each day
seemed to reflect what we were studying at the
time. The day of the mid-term exam, wh