Sister Rita K. Kerr, S.F.P.

Sister Rita K. Kerr, S.F.P., a pioneer in healthcare for the elderly, died March 23 in Schervier Home in the Bronx. She was 90.

She served in health care ministry for almost 70 years, including as president and chief executive officer of the Franciscan Health System of New York, which includes the Frances Schervier Home and Hospital in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. She retired from that position in 1992. She had served in the Franciscan system since 1976.

Under her leadership the Franciscan system expanded with the construction of the Frances Schervier Apartments, a 154-unit complex in the Bronx for the well elderly and mobility impaired. She oversaw the development of the Frances Schervier Long-term Home Health Care Program, Frances Schervier Nutrition Services, and a day care and learning center for children in Riverdale.

She served as director of community services for the aged for archdiocesan Catholic Charities and advocated for Catholic health care facilities and community organizations for many years.

She also served the Franciscan Sisters of the Poor as assistant provincial, 1964-1968; general councilor, 1968-1971; and regional councilor, 1972-1997.

After retiring from her health care ministry she visited women imprisoned in Bedford Hills.

In 1986 she was named “Riverdalean of the Year” for her long service to that community.

Born in Newark, N.J., she entered the novitiate of the Franciscan Sisters of the Poor in 1944 and professed final vows in 1945. She was a nurse and licensed nursing home administrator, and an adjunct professor of gerontology at George Washington University. She held a master’s degree from Iona College and completed postgraduate work in gerontology at the University of Michigan.

Her sister, Eleanor, survives her.

A Funeral Mass was offered March 26 in Schervier Nursing Center Chapel. Burial was at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne.