Patricia Shaffer, RSCJ

Birth: June 11, 1928
Profession: July 29, 1957
Death: December 5, 2024

Religious of the Sacred Heart, Patricia “Pat” Shaffer died on December 4, 2024, in Atherton, California. She was 96 years old and a religious for 75 years. Pat was born on June 11, 1928, in Los Angeles, California, to Edwin Joseph Shaffer and Rose Rey Shaffer. She was one of five children with two sisters and two brothers.

Pat attended the San Francisco College for Women. Before graduating she entered the Society of the Sacred Heart at Kenwood in 1949; she pronounced her first vows in the Society in 1952 and that same year received her BA in Natural Sciences. She then joined the faculty at the Convent of the Sacred Heart, Menlo Park, for three years. In 1957, Sister Shaffer made her final profession in Rome and afterward taught for one year at the Convent of the Sacred Heart, El Cajon. She began graduate studies at Stanford University in 1958, where she earned an MS in Chemistry; later she earned a PhD in Chemistry from the University of California, San Diego/San Diego State University in 1975. She was the first woman admitted to this joint doctoral program.

Sister Shaffer’s career spanned nearly sixty years beginning in 1959 at the University of San Diego as associate professor and then professor of chemistry. Hailed as the “sister-scientist,” she was among the few religious of that time who had two vocations. However, Sister Shaffer described in her own words, that it was a “way of embracing all means in our power to express God’s love.” She went on to say that, “resources of human beings such as their minds are not separate from the work of Jesus Christ and the church.” Her scientific interest was in the area of biochemical research on aspergillus nidulans (cloning specific genes) for the treatment of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia and lymphoma. Sister Shaffer co-authored and authored numerous publications and articles in her areas of expertise and research. She served on a number of committees at USD, and served on the Institutional Biosafety Committee with Viagene Inc. San Diego, (1992-1997). Sister Shaffer was also a trustee of Forest Ridge Academy of the Sacred Heart in Bellevue, Washington (1975-1979).

Sister Shaffer applied for and received internal and external funding for her research. In 1980, she was awarded the NATO Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in the Genetics Department at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, for her sabbatical year. She was a member of the American Chemical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Society of Biochemists and Molecular Biologists, the Association for Women in Science and the International Association for Women Bioscientists. She was the president of GWIS (pronounced Gee-Whiz), Graduate Women in Science. The President’s Club at USD honored her with the Women of Achievement award in 1990.

As the advisor for the Founders’ Club at USD, which provided opportunities for service and outreach in San Diego, Sister Shaffer led USD students to Mecca, California, for a day visit to high school students who were predominately Hispanic, recent immigrants who worked as farm laborers or in hotel and restaurants. The USD students would share their own experience in high school and college and encourage these high school students to share their own dreams for the future. The club then invited these same high school students to the USD campus for a visit in the spring. Sister Shaffer arranged tours and information from admissions counselors. The purpose was not to recruit for USD but to enlarge the students’ knowledge of what was possible. Since the Founders’ Club started these visits, more than half the youth with whom the members worked have gone to college.

Sister Shaffer was the beloved chaplain of the women’s basketball team at USD. She was faithfully on the bench for every home game and knew every player. She could tell you how tall, strong and fast they were. She knew who could dribble, pass, shoot, rebound, defend, and jump. Sister Shaffer had love to spare for everyone, and her love was not conditioned by whether they were a starter on the team or the third string. She transcended barriers and made the effort to meet and see another human being. The greatest thing she did, as the women’s basketball team chaplain, was to love wholeheartedly.

In 2013, when it came time to pack up Sister Shaffer’s belongings for her move to Oakwood, two former USD basketball players were recruited to help “load the van.” They expected this to be a daylong event. In twenty minutes, the task was complete. Then, Sister Shaffer announced that there was one more thing: they needed to go to her lab and pick up the fungi that she was studying. Her research study was not done. Coach Marpe reflected on the value that Sister Shaffer brought to herself and the team. “She taught all of us the importance of relationships. We knew we were loved, and everyone belonged.”

Sister Shaffer was always a welcoming presence to students. The Casa Maria Community at the time decided to invite all the students who stayed on campus for the Thanksgiving holiday to Thanksgiving dinner. The list of students quickly became so long that they had to make dinner in the DeSales kitchen and then arrange the tables into one gigantic dinner table. The laughter and joy that filled the room was a celebration of gratitude. Sister Shaffer made sure that everyone had enough to eat and recruited some of the young men to come back to the house over the weekend to help move furniture and rearrange the community room. They also helped finish up the leftovers.

Sister Shaffer spent the next eleven years as a beloved member of the Oakwood Community. As her health declined, she entered hospice care at Oakwood. This past May, she was thrilled by a visit from her two sisters who live in California. On December 5, 2024, Sister Shaffer quietly went to God. 

A memorial liturgy will be held in the Oakwood chapel at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, January 25, 2025.

Memorial contributions may be made in memory of Sister Shaffer to the Society of the Sacred Heart, P.O. Box 958047, St. Louis, MO 63195-8047 or online at https://rscj.org/donate.