In Memoriam:
Sister Mary Florence Burns ’46 CSJ, Ph.D.
She celebrated her 100th birthday in April on the Brooklyn Campus with members of the SJNY community who assembled on the lawn outside of Founders Hall and the Dillon Child Center.
For more than 80 years, S. Mary Florence was an influential educator and administrator. After graduating from St. Joseph’s University, New York (then College for Women) in 1946, she earned a master’s degree at St. John’s University and entered religious life in 1947. In 1950, she returned to St. Joseph’s as an instructor of English.
“Some of my happiest memories are of some of those students … watching them grow, watching them come to understand literature and with that, to understand what I consider to be so important: critical thinking, the ability to analyze…,” S. Mary Florence said in 2017 during a special video project at the University.
S. Mary Florence would continue her education, earning a Ph.D. from Columbia University. In 1969, S. Mary Florence became academic dean of St. Joseph’s and later was named vice president for academic affairs. In these roles she helped elevate the academic integrity of the institution by developing curricula, courses and methods of instruction, while also serving as chief adviser to St. Joseph’s presidents, S. George Aquin O’Connor and S. Elizabeth A. Hill.
Throughout her tenure as an administrator, S. Mary Florence was an instrumental figure. As dean in the 1970s, she helped St. Joseph’s navigate changes in society, economics and higher education, including specific pressures faced by Catholic colleges, many of which were beginning to close their doors. Her steady hand over the following decades helped the institution evolve in ambitious ways, turning co-ed to expand the student body, as well as expanding its physical presence with what is now SJNY’s Long Island Campus in Patchogue.
Her Early Life and Career
As an undergraduate, S. Mary Florence (Florence Marie Burns) served as class president in her sophomore year and was a member of Sigma Iota Chi. She was part of the staff of the yearbook, Footprints, and wrote for Loria, the school’s literary magazine. She was published in each of the three issues her senior year, including a piece about the end of World War II. In the summer of 1945, she worked as playground director of the New York City Parks Department. After graduating from St. Joseph’s College, she worked as a typist for the North British and Mercantile Insurance Company.
She entered the religious community on Sept. 8, 1947,
and was received on April 4, 1948.
Having earned an M.A. in English from St. John’s University, S. Mary Florence began her long and storied career in education as a sixth-grade teacher at St. Michael’s School in Brooklyn.
While teaching English at St. Joseph’s, S. Mary Florence continued her own academic pursuits, earning a Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1961. Her doctoral dissertation was a titled “Textual study of Thomas Tyrwhitt’s Edition of the Canterbury Tales (1775-1778).”
Beyond her role guiding St. Joseph’s, S. Mary Florence also spent 26 years as a valued member of the Brooklyn Public Library Board of Trustees, including serving as president from 1988-1991.
In 2003, an original college building on the Brooklyn Campus (245 Clinton Ave.) was renamed Burns Hall in honor of her devotion to St. Joseph’s. Additionally, in 2014, the Sister Mary Florence Burns Award for Teaching Excellence and Impact was created to recognize extraordinary faculty members who embody the characteristics and legacy of S. Mary Florence.
Services for S. Mary Florence were held on July 29 at Maria Regina Chapel in Brentwood.
—Sister Mary Florence Burns ’46