Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary Sister Irene Cody died Feb. 11 at age 100 at Marymount Convent, Tarrytown, N.Y. She was a member of the order for 80 years.
The youngest of three sisters, she was born Dorothy Cody Jan. 5, 1926, in New York City to James and Irene McLoughlin Cody.
She earned a bachelor’s in English from Marymount College, and a master’s in Latin and classics, and a doctorate in educational psychology and counseling from Fordham University.
After graduating from the Academy of the Sacred Heart of Mary in Manhattan, she entered the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary at the RSHM Novitiate in Tarrytown Sept. 8, 1943. The following year, she received her religious name, Sister Irene. She made her first vows April 11, 1945, in Butler Memorial Chapel in Tarrytown, where she later made her final vows Aug. 27, 1950.
Over the next few decades, she taught at Marymount schools across the globe, including in New York City (1950-66), Colombia (1966-68), and Mexico (1968-69). After returning to New York to teach for another year, she became director of education of the Eastern American Province of the RSHM (1970-72).
Sister Irene tended to the well-being of students both in and outside of the classroom. In 1973, she became a guidance counselor at Sacred Heart of Mary High School in Manhattan (1973-75) and at Marymount International School in London (1975-76). She then spent a year in Rome at the RSHM Generalate, working in the institute’s communications office. In 1977, she returned to the U.S. to serve in the administration at Sacred Heart of Mary.
She arrived at Marymount University in Arlington in 1978 as director of financial aid. She also became a foreign student adviser, counseling international students while developing programs and services for them. In 2018, the university dedicated the Cody Gallery at its Ballston Center in her honor. When Sister Irene retired from active ministry, she continued to volunteer in Arlington with the Literacy Council of Northern Virginia, tutoring adults in reading and writing.
After 36 years at Marymount University (1978-2014), she returned to Marymount Convent in Tarrytown, where she remained until her death. Members of the RSHM eastern region gathered Jan. 11 at Marymount Convent in Tarrytown, N.Y., to celebrate her 100th birthday.
Sister Irene is predeceased by her parents and her two sisters, Irene Elizabeth and Mary Louise.
She is survived by her nieces and nephew, Maureen Higgins, Helen Muhlhauser, Tom Higgins, Dorothy Higgins, Ginny Fabiano, and numerous grandnieces and grandnephews.
Services will be held at Marymount Convent, 32 Warren Avenue, Tarrytown. A Mass of Christian Burial was scheduled for Feb. 19, followed by burial at Mount Calvary Cemetery in White Plains, N.Y.
