Sister Clarice Carlson

We commend to your charity the soul of our beloved
Sister Clarice Carlson
Who departed this life on July 14, 2020
In the seventy-first year of her religious life
Age: 86 years, 9 months, 19 days

The funeral for Sister Clarice is scheduled for July 17, 2020 at 4 p.m. Due to the pandemic, the service will be private but will be live streamed here: https://video.ibm.com/channel/Q4zW6rUvwPq.

“My spirt rejoices in God my Savior…”  Luke 1:47

Sr. Clarice (Harriet) Carlson was born September 26, 1933, the second child of Eric and Madeline “Madge” Smith Carlson, whose first child was Eric II. Before Sr. Clarice celebrated her first birthday, her father died, leaving Madge a widow with two small children. In 1946, her mother married Louis Raupp, a widower with a 2-year-old son, Gerald, making the family a unit of five. Around the same time, Harriet, a student at St. Basil School in Carrick, was discerning her vocation and enrolled in Providence Villa. In 1949, along with her classmates, Harriet became a postulant. The following year, she entered the novitiate and received the name, Sr. Clarice. After her two year novitiate, she professed her temporary vows, and four years later, made her final profession. 

Her studies in education prepared her for her teaching ministry. She earned a bachelor’s degree in education from Duquesne University and a master’s degree in education from the University of Pittsburgh. In addition, she studied at the University of Detroit and the University of Illinois.

In her 47 years of ministry in education, she taught seven years in elementary school and 20 years in high school in the dioceses of Pittsburgh and Altoona. Then she began as a full time adjunct faculty member, teacher and academic counselor for Project Achievement/Act 101 Program at La Roche University. Sr. Clarice was the definition of kindness. She took a personal interest in each student and encouraged them to do their best.

Sr. Clarice once wrote that her grandmother was her “role model as a woman of faith.” As a prayerful, happy and simple religious, Sr. Clarice experienced the truth that “God cannot be outdone in generosity.” Perhaps that was the reason she “never regretted following His call.” Recently, she told her brother that she was ready to die and receive her reward. 

She loved Our Lady and had great devotion to the Holy Rosary, praying it daily when possible. A few days before she died, she told one of the nurses that she was going to see her mother. We believe now that she has received her reward of God’s eternal and loving presence and enjoying it in the company of her mother, her grandmother and Our Lady, her heavenly mother.

Birthday: September 26
Sr. Maura Luffy

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