ForeverMissed
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Her Life

Sister Mary Joel Acerno

March 27, 2014

         Sister Mary Joel Acerno, a member of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph, died March 21 at Maria Regina Residence in Brentwood, NY. She was in the 66th year of her religious life.

         Born Eileen Lucille Acerno on Dec. 13, 1925 in Long Island City, NY, she was the daughter of Margaret (McGuinness) and Michael Acerno. A 1948 graduate of St. Joseph’s College for Women, Brooklyn, where she earned a BA in education, she entered the convent that same year. She held a master’s degree in mathematics from St. John’s University and spent her life devoted to the ministry of education.

         Sister Mary Joel first served as a 6th and 7th-grade teacher at St. Benedict Joseph Labre School in Richmond Hill from 1950 until 1959, when she left to become a member of the faculty and a mathematics professor at St. Joseph’s College for Women. From 1975-78, she was principal at St. Clare’s School in Rosedale, and from 1978-1990 was principal at Holy Child Jesus, Richmond Hill. She returned to her first love of classroom teaching at Holy Family School, Flushing, from 1990-96. After receiving her paralegal degree in 1996 from Queens College, she was employed by attorneys Joseph Brintle of Whitestone and Muriel Wanderman of Flushing, up until she became ill in 2013. She also taught part-time at St. John’s University. Sister was a member of many math organizations, earning a number of awards during her tenure as an educator. She also authored numerous articles on the teaching of mathematics and tutored many students in addition to her classroom and CCD teaching.

       Sister Mary Joel is survived by a brother, Arthur Acerno, and sister-in-law, Dorothea, of Rockville Centre, NY; a sister, Virginia Bartley, and brother-in-law, Bernard, of Plandome, NY; and 22 nieces and nephews. She was pre-deceased by two sisters, Grace Ambrose of Garden City, and Gloria McKenna of Crofton, Md.; and a brother, Michael Acerno, Jr. of Keene, NH.

      In lieu of flowers, the family kindly requests donations be made to the Sister Mary Joel Acerno Scholarship Fund to defray high school tuition for a graduating eighth-grade student at Holy Family School, 7415 175th Street, Flushing, NY 11366.

We are touched and incredibly geatful for kor all of your thoughts and prayers for our beloeved Aunt Eileen.