Sister Ellen Maroney, IHM

“Open-minded, Fair, Courageous, Compassionate and Fun”

Ellen Maroney was born in Syracuse, and, by only minutes (she’s a twin) she’s the third of four children of John and Catherine Maroney.

Ellen’s parents separated when she was only 5 (Her oldest brother, Michael, was 9 and her sister, Diane, was 4) Her grandmother owned a restaurant and bar that had several apartments and Ellen’s family moved in. Sadly, her grandmother died when Ellen 7. Then, her mother’s friend came to live in one of the apartments and helped to care for them.

To support the family, Ellen’s mother took a job with the railroad in its maintenance department as a cleaning woman while she studied to be an LPN. Later, a secretarial position in a family business opened and it offered better hours and a higher salary.

Despite these challenges, Ellen and her siblings all graduated from Most Holy Rosary Grade and High School. It became apparent from the start that Ellen was born into and raised by strong and determined women.

Ellen’s mother also went to Most Holy Rosary School. Besides knowing the IHMs as teachers, Ellen’s mother was often their driver.

Ellen believed she had a vocation when she was in high school, but choose to wait a year. Ellen went to Niagara University and enrolled as a history major. I suspect she was
influenced by her history teacher – Sister Vincent – who went on to be her Sponsor. “History is about courageous, strong-willed people that made a difference. They moved nations, moved people. That’s what attracted me to history.”

Ellen spent three years teaching Junior High School before she was Assistant Principal at St. Dominic’s High School. The IHMs had already started to recognize her leadership skills.

Ellen’s ministry titles include Secondary Ed Teacher, Director, Theresa Maxis Justice and Peace Center, Assistant Principal (always including some teaching), Director of Religious Ed., Pastoral Associate, Dean of Students and Vice Principal.

In 2010, Ellen was first elected to IHM Leadership. She was both a Team Member and the Vice President.

In 2014, Ellen became the IHM President and began one of the most challenging times in office for any IHM President.

None of us will forget what happened to Sister Angela Miller and her family: a murder, a suicide, a fire and a missing (presumed dead) Angela. When tragedy happens, we look to our leaders. Not only were the IHMs looking to Ellen but so was the Miller family and the St. Clare’s School faculty, students and parents. The Millers struggled to organize a funeral for Angela’s nephew. Ellen volunteered to have the funeral services for Angela’s nephew at the IHM Center.

The second significant experience intersected with the first. The week after this tragedy was the Casimir Sisters’ Chapter when the Covenant with the IHMs would become official. Half of the Leadership Team went to Chicago while Sister Jean Louise stayed home to support Ellen.

Ellen almost didn’t make it home for the third event – Covid. Waiting to return home from Peru, Ellen noticed people arriving, wearing masks. If her flight home was just a few days later, she would have had to remain in Peru for months!

Many religious congregations had a number of Covid deaths. By the fall, daily prayer on channel 13 included regular updates from Ellen. The dreaded day came when a Sister was taken to the hospital with Covid pneumonia. It speaks to both prayer and our OLP/IHM Leadership that her death was our only fatality.

There are some people who are born to be leaders. We IHMs have been blessed that Ellen Maroney is among them.