"Good morning, Sistah."

Since attending Sister Barbara Rogers, RSCJ, funeral on Sept. 12, I have been thinking about those words. I loved greeting her in my Boston accent. There was affection in them, and admiration for a woman whose judgment I trusted and whose example I tried to follow.

Sister Barbara led Newton Country Day School of the Sacred Heart from 1989 to 2024. She instilled courage and confidence in two generations of young women. My daughter was among them.

Sister would be outside each morning, welcoming families. On Fridays, I bought a croissant so my daughter could give it to her. A small ritual became a relationship. As a father, I loved that connection. As a school leader, I understood what it revealed: she carried the responsibilities of an institution and still made time for a child.

I also saw her at work in a boardroom. For more than a decade, she served on the Board of Directors of Catholic Memorial, extending her impact on Boston Catholic education. She brought candor, judgment, and an unwavering focus on students. When she later asked me to join her board at Newton Country Day, I had only one answer: yes.

Her Yale MBA and ability to think several moves ahead made her formidable. She understood finances, strategy, and the human beings across the table. She also said it like it was -- honestly, fairly, and in a way entirely her own.

Under her leadership, the school's endowment grew from $220,000 to about $50 million. New laboratories, a theater, an expanded library, and a wellness center gave lasting form to her belief in the power of education.

"Being clear about our mission gives us the freedom to change," she once explained. She understood the inheritance entrusted to her and had the courage to build upon it. That is a lesson I carry into my own work.

Her mission reached back to 1800, when St. Madeleine Sophie Barat and her companions founded the Society of the Sacred Heart in the aftermath of the French Revolution. At a time when such opportunities were rare, they offered girls a serious intellectual education and devoted themselves to making God's love known through it.

Sister carried that conviction into every part of her life.

For her, the school chapel was the heart of the institution, a place where girls could pray and find peace. Its stained-glass windows honor women, including St. Teresa of Avila and St. Madeleine Sophie Barat herself. She loved that her students were surrounded by women whose intellect, courage, and faith had helped shape the Church.

They encountered that tradition in their headmistress, too.

Sister Barbara led a Catholic institution, guided its spiritual life, and made consequential decisions. Her students saw a woman whose judgment carried weight and whose gifts shaped a community.

She expected much of her students because she believed they had much to give. She understood that education forms character through ordinary decisions: telling the truth, keeping a commitment, and beginning again after disappointment.

I can still see her walking the Newton campus after school, wearing her big hat as she cheered for her field hockey teams. I remember her kind words to my son when he arrived at the Newton Country Day prom.

She could command a room at the Boston Chamber and stop to make sure someone sitting in pain on a curb felt loved. Her faith was evident in the attention she gave another person. She was also a Yankees fan in Red Sox country, which took courage and confidence, too.

What she gave my daughter and so many others began with the assurance of being known and loved. From that foundation, a young person can take risks, trust her voice, and discover what she has to offer.

I am grateful that my daughter knew her, and that I did, too. Gratitude for a life like hers carries a responsibility: to give others something of what she gave us.

St. Madeleine Sophie Barat once wrote, "A woman cannot remain neutral in the world -- she, too, is set for the fall and resurrection of many."

Barat's words echo Simeon's prophecy about Jesus in Luke's Gospel. They remind us that discipleship carries responsibility. Through what we accept or challenge, whom we overlook or help to stand, we shape what becomes possible for others.

Sister spent her life helping others rise. She made known the loving Heart of Jesus through the students she knew, the faculty she challenged, the school she strengthened, and the person in pain she stopped to help. She was a true disciple.

The young women she formed now carry her example into their families, their work, and their communities. The courage she nurtured and the goodness she called forth will travel farther than she could ever see.

Sister Barbara Rogers was one of a kind. She did not remain neutral in the world. She gave herself to its good.

And because she did, many rose.



DR. PETER F. FOLAN IS A FORMER TRUSTEE AT NEWTON COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL OF THE SACRED HEART, NEWTON, AND THE HEAD OF SCHOOL AT DEXTER SOUTHFIELD SCHOOL, BROOKLINE.