STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. – Congregation of Notre Dame Sister Rose Mary Galligan, 72, died unexpectedly on Jan. 6.
Sister Galligan was born and raised in New York City. She attended St. Jean Baptiste High School on East 75th Street, where she was taught by the sisters of the Congregation of Notre Dame. When she graduated in 1957, she entered the novitiate of the congregation in Bourbonais, Ill. She made her first vows as a religious in 1959, and professed her final vows in 1965.
Sister Galligan earned a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics from DePaul University in Chicago, and later received her master’s degree in education from Rhode Island College.
She also held a professional certificate in education.
Sister Galligan began her long ministry in education in 1959, as a math teacher at St. Martin School in Kankakee, Ill. She taught from 1963 to 1969 at Notre Dame School in Chicago, and from 1969 to 1980 at the former St. Mary’s Academy of the Visitation in Providence.
She later served as principal of St. Thomas the Apostle School in East Norwich, Conn., from 1980 to 1987, and was completing 25 years of ministry as principal of Notre Dame Academy Elementary School, Staten Island, at the time of her death.
A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated Jan. 10 at St. Peter Church on Staten Island. Burial was on Jan. 11 at St. Peter Cemetery, Danbury, Conn.
