She was born at Sacred Heart Hospital in Spokane and grew up mostly in Sprague, Washington. Her mother, Ruth Martin, was from a large pioneer family who married her college beau, Harold Newman. Together, they raised three children.
The family included two cousins who were Providence Sisters – Srs. Barbara Schiller and Elizabeth Mary Schiller.
Sr. Maureen was a high school boarder at Holy Names Academy in Seattle when she began discerning her vocation. She entered the Sisters of Providence in 1964 at Providence Heights in Issaquah, Washington. In 1972, she received a bachelor’s degree in education from Seattle University, and later a history degree.
She taught for 35 years, including at St. Michael School, Olympia, Washington; St. Joseph School in Vancouver, Washington; and St. Therese School in Seattle, where she also served as assistant principal.
Sr. Maureen has always been determined to live her faith. So, at the 13th annual demonstration at the School of the Americas Watch at Fort Benning, Georgia, in November 2002, she was arrested for trespassing on the base.
“I wasn’t teaching at the time. I informed the provincial leader that I would probably do civil disobedience but not if there was any indication of violence,” she said.
And she knew what the consequences could be.
One of seven nuns to be arrested, she spent 18 hours in custody and nearly three months in a Federal facility after her conviction.
Since that experience, her work has been somewhat less adventurous.
Sr. Maureen worked on the 150th anniversaries of both the Mother Joseph Province and Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Seattle. She was also a provincial councilor on the Leadership Team in Mother Joseph Province.
She has no regrets. “In retrospect, I grew from the experience at Fort Benning. The action deepened my spirituality,” she explained.
It also brought back memories of more than 10 years volunteering to teach arts and crafts in the King County Jail, where most of the women she encountered were mentally or physically ill, reeling from sexual abuse as a child or mourning the loss of a sibling, parent or grandparent at a young age.
Serving on the leadership team offered another important learning. “I received a lot of support from the Sisters and the team,” she once recalled. “And it was a blessing to serve the Sisters of the province.”