Sister Carole Proctor (formerly Sr. Mary Alma)

We remember with gratitude the life of Sister Carole Proctor who was a Sister of Notre Dame for 71 years. She died peacefully at Mercy Retirement and Care Center in Oakland, where she was lovingly cared for during the past nine years.

Sister Carole entered the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur in 1954 after graduating from Notre Dame High School, Belmont, CA. A talented elementary and high school teacher, she served in schools in Redwood City, Millbrae, Salinas, Los Angeles, Belmont, San Francisco, and San Jose. She especially valued her interactions with multicultural inner city students and her social studies classes focused on justice and peace issues.

In 1986, after receiving a Master's Degree from the University of Santa Clara, she began a new ministry as a counselor at Holy Family Parish in San Jose. In 1996 she broadened her service to the international level and became a counseling psychologist at Amani Center and Jesuit Refugee Services in Nairobi, Kenya. Returning to California fourteen years later, she served for many years as a parish counselor in San Jose and Morgan Hill. After a serious automobile accident in 2016, she moved to Mercy Care and Retirement Center where, with a "heart as wide as the world", she continued her outreach to others.

St. Julie Billiart, the foundress of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, made sure that her Sisters were not confined to one diocese but were able to be present all over the world. Sister Carole embraced this gift and noted that her years in Kenya were an especially graced time for her. Energized by living among the poor and working with young Kenyan Sisters, she noted that "we Sisters have an international mind set where differences are seen as adding to the richness of our Notre Dame community".

Daughter of Peter and Elsie Proctor, sister of Phyllis Proctor Cairns (all deceased), she is lovingly remembered by her brother Gary and his wife Gerry, nephews Mark and Peter Cairns and Steve and Kevin Proctor, friends, former students, and Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur.

A Funeral Mass will be celebrated for Sister Carole at 11:00am on Wednesday, September 10 in the Chapel at the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur Province Center, 1520 Ralston Avenue, in Belmont, California. The burial will be held at Santa Clara Mission Cemetery at 2:30 pm on Wednesday, September 10

Contributions in Sister Carole's memory may be made to Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, 1520 Ralston Ave, Belmont, CA 94002 or online at snddeneastwest.org. Further information about her life can be found at https://snddeneastwest.org/sisters/carole-proctor/