Birth: May 22, 1917 Profession: February 11, 1944 Death: September 27, 2006
Alice Husson, RSCJ, a lifelong educator who worked for decades as a teacher and administrator in schools of her religious order, the Society of the Sacred Heart, including Academy of the Sacred Heart, Elmhurst, in Portsmouth, R.I., died Wednesday, September 27 (2006) at Teresian House, a skilled nursing facility in Albany, N.Y. She was 89. Sister Husson was headmistress at Elmhurst from 1962 to 1967, where she had taught in the early 1950s. Sister Husson taught French and English from 1978 to 1988 at Newton Country Day School of the Sacred Heart, Newton, Mass., where she had previously served as mistress of studies from 1953 to 1960. She taught English as a Second Language at Casa Del Sol, a program for immigrants in Boston, from 1975 to 1978. She served as principal of St. Ambrose parochial school, Dorchester, Mass., from 1973 to 1975. She also worked in the Newton College library from 1970 to 1975, serving as circulation manager from 1971 to 1973. Before 1970, in addition to her work in Rhode Island, Sister Husson taught in Sacred Heart schools in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Massachusetts and New York. A native of Rochester, N.Y., Sister Husson held a bachelor’s degree in French from Manhattanville College in 1943, a master’s degree in French from Boston College in 1951 and a doctorate in psychology from Boston College in 1963. She professed her first vows in the Society of the Sacred Heart in 1938 and her final vows in 1944. A lifelong learner as well as educator, Sister Husson studied at the Insitut Catholique de Paris from 1969 to 1970. Throughout her life, she kept abreast of research on new teaching methods and learning styles. She had strong interests in applications of science and computers to daily life and in the fields of spirituality and history. A funeral Mass will be celebrated at 9 a.m. Tuesday, October 3, at Kenwood Convent of the Sacred Heart in Albany (vigil at 4:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 2, at Kenwood), followed by burial in the Kenwood cemetery. Sister Husson is survived by a sister, Gabrielle Husson, RSCJ, of Kenwood Convent in Albany (former president of Newton College), and a brother, Christopher Husson of Pittsford, N.Y. A memorial Mass will be held Friday, October 20, for alumnae and friends at Newton Country Day School of the Sacred Heart, 785 Centre Street, Newton, Mass. Memorial contributions may be made to the Society of the Sacred Heart, 4100 Forest Park Avenue, Suite A, St. Louis, Mo. 63108.