Sister of Charity was 'independent thinker'
When Jacinta Mann clambered up a cherry tree on her parents' Illinois farm, tended chickens, baked bread or learned to drive her brother's Model T — all in the restrictive, mid-century habit of the Sisters of Charity — it dispelled notions of what her nieces and nephews thought nuns, or women in general, could do.
“She didn't want us to think she couldn't do anything because of her habit,” said niece Jane Barclay, 54, of Chicago. “She was an independent thinker, even when we were little and it wasn't popular to be an independent thinker, especially as a woman.”
A statistician, seamstress, artist, professor, dean and former head of admissions at Seton Hill University, Jacinta Mann of Greensburg and Lighthouse Point, Fla., died Sunday at Caritas Christi. She was 91.
Ms. Mann was the fourth of six children born to the late Bernard and Magdalen Mann in Pinckneyville, Ill. She earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Southern Illinois, then a master's from the University of Wisconsin before joining the Sisters of Charity in 1950.
She returned to Wisconsin to finish her doctorate, said Marilyn “Lynn” Conroy, a former student and fellow sister at Seton Hill.
Ms. Mann started at Seton Hill in 1958 and taught math, statistics and research, women's studies and world culture. She became a dean of academics in the late 1960s before returning to teaching in 1971. She left the sisters in 1981 but remained part of the school until retiring in 2002.
As dean, she pioneered a program that allowed students to evaluate faculty, along with another that let students at Seton Hill and St. Vincent College take courses and receive credits from either school, said Ms. Conroy, 80, of Greensburg. As director of admissions, she taught summer courses to admissions officers from around the country at Harvard and John Carroll universities.
Another program Ms. Mann started matched student-teachers to Sisters of Charity schools in Pittsburgh, Altoona and Johnstown, which another niece, Marie “Angie” Thaler, enrolled in because her mother hoped Ms. Mann could watch over her. But Ms. Mann gave her niece room to grow.
“She was a mentor to a lot of us,” said Thaler, 70, of Palm Beach, Fla., who also became a teacher of math and statistics. “What it really taught me was that I didn't have the patience for small children.”
After leaving the sisters, Ms. Mann took up pottery and her ceramics became known around campus, said Annette Ganassi, 60, of Seven Springs who was one of her students and became a close friend for over 40 years.
“She was a statistician, very mathematically oriented, but years later, she became an artist. It was like using the other side of her brain,” Ganassi said. “She had just as much passion and talent in the arts, whether it was making a suit or a clay pot.”
Dianne Gaertner, 64, a trauma nurse and teacher living in Walsh, Ill., said her aunt made her proud to be a woman and an educator.
“She showed us it was OK not only for a woman to have a strong opinion, but it was OK for a woman of strong faith to have an opinion as well,” Barclay said.
Ms. Mann is survived by her 101-year-old aunt, Margaret Rose Ruppert, and 20 nieces and nephews.
A memorial Mass will be celebrated at 11 a.m. Saturday in the Assumption Chapel at Caritas Christi.
Matthew Santoni is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 724 836 6660 or msantoni@tribweb.com.
