MacWilliam

Sister Marie Anita MacWilliam, M.M.

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Sister Marie Anita MacWilliam, M.M., a missioner to Tanzania, died Jan. 1 at Maryknoll Sisters Residential Care IV in Ossining. She was 81.

Initially assigned to Tanzania in 1962, she taught sociology and French at schools there until the next year. Following several years of language study in Makoko, she took a position at the Maryknoll Fathers Language School in Musoma, supervising language teaching and curriculum development, 1969-1973, and then serving as the program director, 1974-1978. She then returned to the United States to serve in Maryknoll’s treasury department.

She went back to Tanzania in 1980 to work first as a research fellow at the Institute of Kiswahili in Dar Es Salaam. She later co-authored a Swahili-French dictionary.

She retired to Maryknoll in 2003. She prepared English lessons for the Mollie Rogers Center and translated a publication examining the plight of women and children in abusive situations into French and Kiswahili.

Born in Montreal, she entered Maryknoll in 1951 and professed final vows in 1960. She was formerly known as Sister Anita Marie. She held a bachelor’s degree from Maryknoll Teachers College and a master’s degree in linguistics from Columbia University.

Two sisters, Isobel Mackay and Patricia MacWilliam, and two brothers, John and Michael, survive her.

She chose to donate her body to science. A Memorial Mass was offered Jan. 11 in the sisters chapel in Ossining.

Sister Marie Anita MacWilliam, M.M.