Farewell Sr Denise Doyle rsm
05/04/2023Sr Denise Doyle rsm was a former student and boarder at St Mary’s College. She enjoyed a lifetime of service as a Sister of Mercy and a highly accomplished teacher, including thirteen years teaching at her own former school, St Mary’s College. Sister Denise died peacefully on Friday 17 March 2023 in the 70th year of her Religious Profession.
Although Denise Doyle was born in Bairnsdale in 1933, the effects of the depression in the 1930s resulted in the family’s move to Melbourne when she was very young. Denise went to St Margaret Mary’s Primary School in North Brunswick until the age of ten.
In 1944, near the end of the Second World War, Denise’s mother was advised by her doctor to send her daughter ‘north of the great dividing range’ in an attempt to help alleviate her chronic asthma. Bendigo was chosen for both its dry climate and St Margaret Mary’s principal’s recommendation of the boarding school run by the Bendigo Sisters of Mercy. For the move to Bendigo, Denise had to leave behind her five-year-old brother Jim and the siblings never again lived permanently together.
Upon arrival in Bendigo, young Denise was awed by the imposing building and bustling boarding school with its rows of beds. One of the first boarders she met that day was Kathleen Slattery, an older boarder who also went on to become a Sister of Mercy and a lifelong friend.
Denise slept on the ‘big’ balcony – a wooden structure with canvas blinds, which extended the length of the north side of the brick boarders’ facilities above the classrooms and hall (now built-in). She found the living conditions at school to be typical of wartime restrictions and took it all in her stride.
There were many aspects of boarding that Denise enjoyed, particularly the company of the other girls and ballroom dancing each evening at the end of study period. This ensured that the girls went to bed with warm feet.
Denise enjoyed playing tennis and in 1947 was part of the team that brought home the Mollie Sandner Cup for the first time. That team also included Maureen Sullivan, another classmate who went on to become a Sister of Mercy.
In 1950 the first co-ed dance was held between St Mary’s girls and Marist Brothers’ College boys. The dance was organised by Fr de Campo and held in the St Mary’s Hall using just a gramophone.
As a conscientious scholar, Denise enjoyed school and won scholarships, which ensured she was able to stay on at school and complete her Matric. In Grade 8, she was part of the class being prepared for the State Scholarship Examination. These students took lessons separately from the other girls – outdoors on the tessellated tile veranda was the only space available (including winter). Several of the girls were successful in gaining the scholarship, including Denise.
In 1950, Denise completed her Matric along with Gabrielle Jennings, Aileen Jeffrey, Therese Ryan, Nan Coughlin, Margaret Carrigan and Beverley Butler – all were boarders except Aileen. Gabrielle Jennings also joined the Sisters of Mercy and later founded the Notre Dame Institute of Education in Pakistan in the 1990s.
Not wanting to join the secretarial or office workforce led Denise to consider teaching as a profession. Her admiration and respect for the Sisters who cared for her led to a determination to teach in the Catholic education system and join the Sisters of Mercy.
After completing Matric, Denise went first to the Novitiate at Rosanna before commencing her teacher training at Ascot Vale in 1951. She was professed in December 1953 and was one of the first Sisters allowed to keep her own name.
Her first posting was to St Mary’s Primary School in West Melbourne, followed by St Bernard’s in Belmont (now known as Clairvaux Catholic School). In 1960, Sr Denise was called back to Bendigo because she was one of the few Sisters with a driver’s licence. At this time a driver was required to drive the Sisters’ Combi van from the Barkly Street convent to the various primary schools and home again in the afternoon. For the next two years, Sr Denise taught at Holy Rosary Bendigo before being relocated to St Mary’s College to teach in Proficiency once more Sisters learned to drive.
At St Mary’s, Sr Denise once again became part of the busy life of the boarding school and convent: taking care of the boarders, teaching during the day, taking care of invalid Sisters in the convent overnight, supervising Saturday lessons, recreation and sporting activities. On weekends the Sisters taught music to outside students to supplement their income, they also held Latin classes for adults and dressmaking lessons.
During her time teaching at St Mary’s, Sr Denise taught many subjects, her favourite being history. At one time a student wanted to study accounting, so to accommodate her, Sr Denise gained her tertiary qualifications in accounting at night school. Unusually, she also taught both maths and English at the senior level. In the late 1950s and early 1960s she was involved with St Mary’s College gaining Federal funding from the Menzies Government to implement science facilities and then a library. A lay librarian was employed (Greta Gallagher) with the library located in the second-floor extension of the cream brick building below the swimming pool (now the Ursula Frayne Building).
In 1976 Sr Denise moved on to Yarrawonga, followed by Trinity St Josephs in Colac. In 1979 she became the Principal of Sacred Heart Kyneton and stayed until the end of 1983 when she went to Academy, Fitzroy.
After some ill health, Sr Denise took up a position in the Policy Unit of the Catholic Education Office in East Melbourne and remained there until her retirement in 1997. She then returned to study, undertaking a Master of Arts (Celtic Study) in Sydney. She presented on Ancient Culture for U3A and travelled in Europe and the British Isles in 1995 and 2005.
Sr Denise was always a popular guest at various St Mary’s College reunions and particularly boarders’ reunions where many humorous stories were recounted. She always attended events if her schedule and health allowed it. She took great interest in the achievements and lives of her former students as well as the many advancements of her former school, now Catherine McAuley College. Sr Denise attended the last boarders’ reunion which was held in October 2019.
Sr Denise Doyle rsm died peacefully on Friday 17 March 2023 at St Vincent’s Public Hospital in the 70th year of her Religious Profession. May she rest in peace.
