Sister Pauline Marie Swint (1926-2021)

May 9—FREMONT — Sister Pauline Marie Swint, a grade school teacher and principal, who was skilled at inspiring order and precision in her education ministry and later in her duties at Our Lady of the Pines Retreat Center, died Tuesday in St. Bernardine Home, Fremont. She was 94.

She had been in declining health, according to sisters in her religious community, the Sisters of Mercy.

She was Sister Mary Urban when she began teaching. Over 18 years, she taught second through eighth graders in Mansfield, Ohio, and at St. Catherine, St. Clement, and St. Vincent de Paul parish schools in Toledo. As a principal the next 13 years, her assignments included St. Clement and St. Vincent de Paul schools.

"She was fair. She was a disciplinarian," Sister Brigid Danaher said, "but she saw the good in the children. She was always hopeful with the children."

Sister Moira Kenny recalled the high expectations set by Sister Pauline, her principal as she was assigned to be a teacher.

"She was a wonderful mentor. She taught me a lot of things," Sister Moira said. "She came to me as a young sister and asked me to proofread her newsletter to parents."

Sister Pauline's next ministry, in the 1980s, was pastoral care at St. Rita's Medical Center in Lima, Ohio, where she was known for listening to patients. Afterward, she came home to her native Fremont and to Our Lady of the Pines, where she spent part of her youth when her father was groundskeeper. The Sisters of Mercy had established a novitiate there in the mid-1920s.

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By Sister Pauline's return, Our Lady of the Pines had become a retreat center, welcoming guests who visited for a day or stayed for a weekend or week, depending on the event in which they enrolled.

"She was what you would call today the facilities manager," Sister Brigid said.

Sister Pauline oversaw the staff and such details as the dietary program and the swimming pool.

"She was a good leader," Sister Brigid said. "She was a precise woman. She really demanded a lot of herself and others."

Her nephew Jim Swint said: "Her heart was so soft it was unreal. She wanted everyone to play by the rules."

In retirement, she brought communion to hospital patients and nursing home residents and volunteered for Meals on Wheels and the Care and Share Center in Fremont.

She was born June 29, 1926, to Anna and Urban Swint, the second youngest and only girl. She was 10 years old when her mother died, and she assumed added household responsibilities.

"The brothers and her were as tightknit as any family you could find," said her nephew Jim, whose father, Gerald, was the second oldest of the six Swint siblings. "The boys always took care of her."

At the Pines, she drove for the sisters, who weren't allowed to then. When a fire in 1943 destroyed part of the original building, she helped evacuate sisters and retrieved their belongings.

She was a graduate of St. Joseph High School, and she entered the Sisters of Mercy community in 1944. She received a bachelor's degree in education from the Athenaeum of Ohio in Cincinnati and a master's degree from Marygrove College in Detroit.

She was a longtime devotee of University of Notre Dame football, watched games on television when she could not attend in person, and corresponded with Lou Holtz, the team's coach in the 1980s and 90s.

Most impressive, her nephew said, were "her loyalty to God and to the sisterhood. She always kept the family in her prayers."

There are no immediate survivors.

Visitation will be from 1-3 p.m. Sunday at the Herman-Karlovetz Funeral Home, Fremont, which will require masks and practice social distancing. A private funeral Mass will be held later.

Tributes are suggested to St. Bernardine Home, Fremont.