SISTER ALICE BEAR, CSJ
February 12, 1914 – April 12, 2009
The daughter born to Alice Hunt Bear and Francis Bear on February 12, 1914 in Grand Forks, North Dakota, was baptized Caroline. After finishing high school in Langdon, N. D., she entered the community of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet in St. Paul. She was given the religious name, Alice. After making final vows in 1935, she was missioned as a pharmacy student to St. Joseph Hospital and then to the College of Pharmacy at the University of Minnesota, graduating with a B.S. in Pharmacy in 1940.
For the rest of her long life she continued the long tradition of a succession of Sister Pharmacists beginning with a “Drug Room” in the 1854 St. Joseph Hospital, set up by Sister Elizabeth McGoldrick, an innovation in those days. The modern hospital pharmacy has evolved from the humble “drug room” in the 1854 hospital. An unseen but an absolute essential department for patient care.
In 1963, Sister pharmacists of the St. Paul Province were honored by a citation from Squibb Laboratories: The Citation read, in part “that one million Prescriptions have been compounded by the professional pharmacists of St. Joseph’s Hospital of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet—St. Paul Province. Said prescriptions having been compounded as their contribution to the public health of this community in association with physicians and other members of the healing professions. Conferred in respectful tribute to the ancient and honorable tradition of the profession of pharmacy this first day of August, 1963.”
After graduation from the College of Pharmacy, she became a licensed pharmacist, a license she renewed in educational programs all her life.
Sister Alice directed the Pharmacy Departments in St. Joseph Hospital, St. Mary’s Hospital, St. John’s Hospital, Fargo, , and in St. Michael’s in Grand Forks. The Pharmacy Department at St. Joseph was recognized for its excellence. The Chief of Pharmacy at the University of Minnesota sent many of its students for a year of internship each year.
In 1955 a meeting of local pharmacists discussed the value of a hospital formulary listing both brand and generic names. Sister Alice wrote the formulary for St. Joseph’s in 1965, the first in the State of Minnesota. Many pharmacists asked for copies, including pharmacists as far away as Australia.
Sister Alice initiated a new form of drug distribution, the unit dose in August 1964. It became standard in all pharmacies.
In 1990, Sister Alice moved to Bethany where she set up a small “drug room” to meet immediate needs of the sisters. Full retirement in 1996 gave her time to embroider items for sale in the Bethany Boutique and also work in ceramics. She also learned to use a computer to help her inventorying.
Failing health gave her time for much needed rest and for prayer which she had been faithful to and was an essential all her life. She asked God to take her to Himself on the Feast of Easter. He answered her prayer on Easter Sunday afternoon.
Alice is now living the scripture quotation she had framed on the wall of her room:
It hath now entered into the heart…what God hath prepared for those who love Him.
Sister Alice was preceded in death by parents, Francis and Alice Hunt Bear; brother, Robert (Margaret); and sister, Olive Keating (Del). Survived by sisters, Rosemary Boyd (John) and Patricia Kaiser; many loving nieces and nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews; Caregivers at Bethany Convent, and Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet and Consociates.
Mass of Resurrection was celebrated at Bethany on April 15, 2009. Interment was in Resurrection Cemetery, Mendota Heights.
