Sr. Joan Donovan, OP, formerly known as Sr. Joan Michael Donovan, died last Saturday, Oct. 2, at the Dominican Life Center in Adrian. She was 83 and in 63rd year of her religious profession in the Adrian Dominican Congregation.

Sr. Donovan was born in Detroit to William and Mary Frances (Ryal) Donovan. She graduated from St. Joseph Academy in Adrian and received a Bachelor of Philosophy degree in English from Siena Heights College (University) in Adrian, and a Master of Arts degree in English from the University of Detroit.

She spent 25 years ministering in education in schools in Illinois, Iowa, Ohio and Ontario. She was principal for six years at a school in Homewood, Ill., and two years at one in Des Moines, Iowa.

Sr. Donovan was in pastoral ministry for 10 years in Chicago, Ill., and Mississauga, Ont. From 1969-1971, she was co-provincial at St. Dominic Provincial House in Hometown, Ill., and from 1989-1998 held the position of annual gifts officer in the Adrian Dominican Sisters Development Office. Sister became a resident of the Dominican Life Center in Adrian in 2002.

She is survived by loving cousins, among them Sr. Edith Kathleen Zemke, OP. She was preceded in death by two cousins, Srs. Marguerite O’Callaghan and Patricia Anne Lynch, also Adrian Dominicans.

A funeral Mass was celebrated Oct. 6 in St. Catherine Chapel, Adrian. Burial was in the congregation’s cemetery, Adrian.

Memorials to Adrian Dominican Sisters, 1257 E. Siena Heights Drive, Adrian 49221.