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Sister Joanne Blihar, O.P., a former principal and teacher, died Nov. 22 at Calvary Hospital in the Bronx. She was 71.
She was principal at Nativity of Our Blessed Lady School in the Bronx, 1970-1971, and St. Ursula School in Mount Vernon, 1973-1975. She also taught at Regina Coeli, Hyde Park, 1975-1977, and at schools in Paterson, Woodbury and Jersey City, all New Jersey.
From 1994 until 2001 she served as pastoral minister at the Newburgh Center of Hope and with the Presentation Sisters in New Windsor. She served parishes in upstate New York, New Jersey, West Virginia and Florida.
Born in Bayonne, N.J., she entered the Dominican Sisters of Newburgh, which later merged to become the Dominican Sisters of Hope, in 1956 and professed final vows in 1961. She held a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Mount St. Mary College, Newburgh. She also had a certificate in pastoral ministry from St. Joseph College in West Hartford, Conn.
A brother, Paul, survives her. A Funeral Mass was offered Nov. 29 at the Dominican Sisters’ Chapel in Newburgh. Burial followed in the Dominican Sisters’ Cemetery in Newburgh.
