Sister who boosted Alaska’s Catholic schools marks 70th jubilee

CatholicAnchor.org
Sister Ann Fallon, 89, former superintendent of schools for the Anchorage Archdiocese, is celebrating her 70th year as an Adrian Dominican sister. From 2006-2011 she lived and served in Alaska, helping unite Catholic schools across the Anchorage Archdiocese into a Catholic school system. She also helped launch Our Lady of the Valley School in Wasilla.

Earlier this summer, Sister Fallon joined fellow Adrian Dominican sisters from across the country who gathered at their motherhouse in Adrian, Mich., for a special week to mark their jubilees and years of service to the church.

Sister Fallon was born in Detroit and graduated from Immaculata High School, Monroe, Mich., in June 1946. That same month, she joined the Adrian Dominicans, making her final vows in 1952.

Her early teaching assignments took her to elementary schools in Illinois and Florida.

From 1959 on, Sister Fallon served in school administration in the Chicago and Detroit areas. This culminated in her service as president of Regina Dominican High School, an all-girls school north of Chicago, sponsored by the Adrian Dominicans.

Sister Fallon later served across three decades in multiple positions for her congregation and for the Archdiocese of Detroit, mostly in Catholic education.

At an age when many are retired, Sister Fallon took part in her congregation’s “Northern Initiative.” In 2006 she travelled to the Archdiocese of Anchorage with the task to organize a diocesan office to support Catholic schools. She also helped found Our Lady of the Valley School in Wasilla.

Sister Fallon served in the Archdiocese of Anchorage until 2011, when she moved back to Michigan. She has served since then as assistant to Holy Rosary Chapter (Province) in Adrian.

Upon her departure from Alaska in 2011, she told the Catholic Anchor that her commitment to Catholic schools is rooted in a vision for the future of the church. Catholic schools, she often reminded Alaskans, is a mission that parishioners should support regardless of whether they have children in Catholic schools.

At her jubilee celebration earlier this summer, she said religious life has been “a great gift that I often wonder why I was so blessed to be called to.”