Sister Mary Gerald Carroll, O.S.U.

Sister Mary Gerald Carroll, O.S.U., a noted liturgical music specialist, died Oct. 31 at the Andrus Residence in Hastings-on-Hudson. She was 93. Her ministry was committed to the study and teaching of Church music, and its performance with groups, from elementary school through college and into parish life. She was on the music faculty at the College of New Rochelle, 1936-1958, and 1973-2000, serving as department chair from 1956 to 1958. She taught and directed choirs at the Ursuline Academy in the Bronx, 1958-1959, and at the Ursuline School in New Rochelle, 1959-1971. She also taught at Blessed Sacrament School, 1973-1974, and St. Gabriel's, 1974-1975, both in New Rochelle. She worked with the choir at Holy Family parish in New Rochelle, 1977-1988. In her retirement, she served as a consultant in liturgical music and led workshops on Church music. She was also a member of the archdiocesan Liturgy Committee, where she assisted parishes in implementing the changes in liturgical celebration initiated by Vatican Council II. She also served her religious community in Beacon, 1971-1973. Born in Manhattan, she entered the Ursuline community in 1933 and pronounced final vows in 1939. She held a bachelor's degree in music from Manhattanville College of the Sacred Heart, now Manhattanville College, in Purchase, and a master's degree in musicology with a specialty in liturgical music from The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. A Funeral Mass was offered at the Ursuline Province Center in New Rochelle on Nov. 4 with burial in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in New Rochelle.