Omaha native was teacher, administrator and counselor

Sinsinawa Dominican Sister Mary Kennan Kudlacz, an Omaha native whose 65 years of religious life included teaching, school administration and pastoral counseling, died Feb. 25 in Hazel Green, Wis. She was 85. 

A funeral Mass was held March 4 at the Dominican motherhouse in Sinsinawa, Wis., with burial in the motherhouse cemetery. 

Sister Mary Kennan made her first religious profession as a Sinsinawa Dominican in 1953 and her perpetual profession in 1956. Throughout her religious life, she served in a variety of ministerial roles. 

She worked as a teacher, a principal and an assistant principal at schools in Illinois, Wisconsin, Oklahoma and California, and as a pastoral counselor at a Nevada parish. 

She worked in health care as a hospital chaplain in California and New Mexico. She also served as the vice president of mission integration at St. Joseph Hospital/Lovelace Sandia Health System in Albuquerque, N.M. 

She is preceded in death by her parents, August and Agnes Kudlacz, sister, Delores Hartigan, and brother, Richard Kudlacz. She is survived by nieces, nephews and her fellow Dominican sisters.