Consociate Ruth Mary Quinn
1926 - 2009
Ruth Mary Quinn was born April 24, 1926 into a Jewish family named Bloom. Ruth's father died
when she was 11years'old and she had one sibling-a brother who died in WWII. In high school she
was a member of the National Honor Society. After high school the war was going on and she applied
to the Cadet Nursing Core program and was accepted. The program was at The College of St.
Catherine. It was while she was a nursing student that she learned about the Catholic faith and the
Sisters of St. Joseph.
On September 8, 1946 Ruth entered the community of the Sisters ofSt. Joseph. After she entered she
was given the name Ruth. It was a well chosen name. Ruth of the Hebrew scripture was a young
Moabite widow who said to her Hebrew mother-in-law Naomi, "Where you go I will go, your people
shall be my people and your God my God". When Ruth became a Catholic and later joined the CSJs
she lived this way, not just at that time of her life, but throughout her life.
Ruth was a religious for 24 years. She was the Director of Nursing at St. Mary's Hospital,
Minneapolis, and held many other nursing positions. In the 1950s she taught in Japan for three years.
She exhibited the qualitiesof service to those she worked with and cared for.
In 1970 Ruth left the CSJ community and continued working as a nurse in doctors' offices and in rural
Minnesota. As a single woman she lived simply. She had a gift of being a seamstress. Sewing was
one of her many gifts and talents. She eventually returned to St. Mary's Hospital to work in its newly
organized Home Health program.
She married her husband, Bill, in 1983.
In Ruth's lifetime she had three vocations as a religious, a single woman and a married woman. She
has been quoted as saying, "I had three vocations and the last was the best."
In 2000 Ruth became a Consociate of the Sisters of St. Joseph. She felt she had come full circle. She
was still married to the man she loved and at the same time embraced once again the charism of the
CSJs. She love giving her time to the ministries of the Sisters.
Ruth died peacefully on January 13. She is survived by her husband, Bill; daughters Linda and Katie;
sons William and Michael; granddaughters Molly and Kerry; the Sisters of St. Joseph and Consociates.
Her funeral Mass was held in the Presentation Chapel of S1.Joseph's Provincial House, as she
requested.
