Sister of Charity of Nazareth Dorothy MacDougall, formerly Sister Mary Julia, died July 17 in Nazareth, Ky. She was 87 and had been an SCN for 67 years.
Sister MacDougall, a native of Jeffersonville, Ind., served as a teacher during her early years in ministry.
In the Archdiocese of Louisville, she taught sixth-grade and eighth-grade students at St. Joseph School in Bardstown. She was also an instructor at Nazareth College and Spalding University. In 1972 she was appointed director of education at the SCN Center in Nazareth.
Sister MacDougall was involved with a federal public school dropout prevention research program in west Louisville. This influenced her to develop an education for justice program in Catholic schools, which extended to schools in India and Nepal.
Sister MacDougall also served as a leader in her religious community. In 1979 she was named provincial of the SCN Southern Province and then served as superior general from 1980-1988.
She advocated expanding the SCN healthcare ministry and addressing the AIDS epidemic in the U.S. and abroad, leading to two beds at Nazareth Home being opened for AIDS patients.
She also served as vice president for mission in health care, working with St. Joseph Hospital in Lexington, Ky., the SCN Health System and CHI Southeast Regional Office in Nazareth and Louisville.
Sister MacDougall also served as a consultant for the development of programs at Nazareth Hospital in Mokama and Bihar in India. From 2003-2007, she served as secretary to the vice provincial of the SCN Western Province office in Quincy, Mass.
Later in her ministry, she volunteered at the Notre Dame Education Center in South Boston, Mass., and taught English to immigrants in Quincy.
She retired in 2017 and returned to Nazareth.
Sister MacDougall is survived by her siblings Daniel MacDougall, Marilyn Lily, Joann Paris and Margaret Jones, members of her extended family and her congregation.
A wake will be held today, July 19, at 6:30 p.m. at St. Vincent de Paul Church on the Motherhouse campus.
The Funeral Mass will be celebrated July 20 at 10:30 a.m. in St. Vincent de Paul. Burial will follow in Nazareth Cemetery.
The wake and funeral will be live-streamed at nazareth.org/live at St. Vincent de Paul Church on the Motherhouse campus.
