Members of the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary’s eastern region gathered Jan. 11 at Marymount Convent in Tarrytown, N.Y., to celebrate the 100th birthday of Sister Irene Cody, RSHM. Father Senan Taylor, OFM Cap., offered a morning Mass in her honor, followed by a toast and luncheon with sisters, friends and members of the community.
She was born Jan. 5, 1926, in New York City, to James and Irene Cody, the youngest of three sisters. A graduate of Sacred Heart of Mary High School in Manhattan, she entered the RSHM in Tarrytown in 1943. She professed her three-year vows in 1947, and her final vows in 1950.
Sister Irene’s long ministry in education spanned the United States and abroad. She earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Marymount College in 1948, a master’s in Latin and classics from Fordham University in 1955, and a doctorate in educational psychology and counseling from Fordham in 1963. As she worked toward completing her various degrees, she taught full time in Marymount schools in New York. In 1966, she served as principal and superior at Marymount in Medellin, Colombia, and then went on to teach at Marymount in Cuernavaca, Mexico. She returned to New York in 1969 to teach at Marymount. She became the province’s director of education in 1970 until she returned to work in schools in 1973.
Sister Irene then served as guidance counselor at the Academy of the Sacred Heart of Mary, or SHM, Park Terrace in New York City, and later at Marymount in London. In 1976, she spent a year in the communications office of the RSHM Generalate in Rome, later returning to New York for a year as part of the administrative team at SHM High School.
In 1978, Marymount College President Sister Majella Berg, RSHM, invited her to serve as director of financial aid at the college —now Marymount University— in Arlington. Recognizing the growing international student population and her own affinity for working with young people from other countries, Sister Irene transitioned to the admissions department where she recruited and counseled international students, later developing programs and additional services for these students. In 2018, the university dedicated the Cody Gallery at its Ballston Center in her honor, recognizing her decades of service to international students. While in Arlington, she also volunteered with the Literacy Council of Northern Virginia, tutoring adults in reading and writing and helped train new tutors. After 36 years at Marymount University, she retired to Marymount Convent in Tarrytown, N.Y.
At the gallery dedication, Sister Irene said, “I hope you will have the opportunity, if you have not already had it, to travel to different parts of the world and to meet people whose lives will speak to you of the goodness of their God.”
