Celebrating Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt, BVM with a life-size standup at her funeral services are BVMs Mary Ann Zollmann (l.), Margaret Mary Cosgrove, Kathy Kandefer, and Anne Marie McKenna.
For generations of college students, alumni, and fans around the world, Jean Dolores Schmidt, BVM—known as Sister Jean—was an enduring presence whose faith, warmth, and conviction shaped campus life and radiated far beyond it.
When Mundelein College, where Sister Jean had been a teacher and administrator for 30 years, affiliated with Chicago’s Loyola University in 1991, she became a crucial bridge between the two Chicago institutions.
She continued her ministry at Loyola for decades, serving as assistant dean and vice president, but it was as chaplain to the Loyola men’s basketball team that she became known to the world. In that role, she emerged as a global icon at age 98 when the team made the NCAA Final Four—posing for selfies, leading pre-game prayers, and cheering the team on from the stands. Her greatest joy, she said, was “telling the world what these kids were doing.”
That instinct to foster belonging and community began almost the moment Sister Jean was born Dolores Bertha Schmidt on Aug. 21, 1919, in San Francisco. She grew up in a family where love of God was woven into daily life. That experience of family as community inspired her third-grade dream: “I would pray, ‘Dear God, help me understand what I should do, but please tell me that I should become a BVM sister.’”
Sister Jean entered the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary on Sept. 8, 1937. She marveled that her childhood prayer “put me on such a gratifying, godly path. All I ever wanted to do was serve God and teach children.”
For more than two decades, she taught in classrooms across Chicago, Los Angeles, and North Hollywood. Her stories revealed both her humor and her heart: the student who finally grasped inverted fractions after she turned him upside down; the blind student who, with her encouragement, aced a scholarship exam; and Roger Mahony, a former pupil who would later become a cardinal. In every lesson, she invited students to engage the world with curiosity, compassion, and a deep sense of justice.
In 1961, she arrived at Mundelein College, where she was a steady presence during a time of profound change. She guided students through national tragedy, social upheaval, and transformation, while also accompanying young BVM sisters through academic, spiritual, and personal challenges. In every role, Sister Jean embodied what many came to call a “mighty kindness.”
Despite her celebrity status with Loyola’s basketball team, she remained at heart a BVM sister who viewed her life as “an amazing blessing.”
Those who knew her—and the millions who came to admire her—remember not only a beloved chaplain and educator, but a woman whose steadfast faith shaped every step of her remarkable journey. Her life stands as a living testament to God’s enduring love.
Sister Jean, circa 1970s. Photo courtesy of the Women and Leadership Archives, Loyola University Chicago.
This article was adapted from previously published material, including the Eulogy for Sister Jean by Mary Ann Zollmann, BVM, and a statement released by BVM President LaDonna Manternach.
This story was featured in:
Winter Salt 2026: A Life Commended to God
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