OGDENSBURG -- Ogdensburg Free Academy now offers a scholarship “in memory of a woman who devoted her life to serving the people of Ogdensburg, and who rose to top leadership posts in her hometown and in her national religious order,” according to James Reagan.

The grant is for a graduating senior.

Sister Kathleen Sholette, the former secretary general of the Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart, grew up in Ogdensburg and devoted most of her life to serving the people of her hometown, Reagan said. After graduating from St. Mary’s Academy in 1948 and D’Youville College in 1952, where she earned a degree in nursing, she began her career as a registered nurse at what’s now Claxton-Hepburn Medical Center. At the hospital, she rose from staff nurse to operating room supervisor and head nurse before obtaining her master’s degree at Case Western Reserve and working as assistant dean of nursing at D’Youville College.

She returned to Ogdensburg to serve as administrator of St. Joseph’s Nursing Home for 18 years, providing leadership on the boards of directors of several organizations, including Claxton Hepburn Medical Center, the United Way, the Board of Trustees of D’Youville College, the Board of Managers of St. Joseph’s Nursing Home, secretary of the St. Joseph’s Nursing Home Foundation, the board of directors of the New York Association of Homes and Services for the Aging and a member of the General Council of the Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart. In 1975, the board of directors of what was then Hepburn Hospital turned to her to serve as interim CEO of the medical center, Reagan said.

In 1988, she left Ogdensburg to assume one of the top national leadership posts of the Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart as the religious order’s Secretary General, while continuing to serve on the board of directors of Claxton Hepburn Medical Center.

In 1998, she returned to Ogdensburg to serve as Claxton Hepburn Medical Center’s patient advocate, working with Ogdensburg families and hospital staff members.

When she was leaving her position as patient advocate at Claxton-Hepburn in 2005 to assist at the religious order’s headquarters, Rev. Walter Smith, pastor of the First Congregational Church, wrote in a letter to her: “I know that religious go at the call of God and that somehow they must need you more than the patients and staff at the Ogdensburg hospital. But I wanted to say how much your gentle ministry has meant to so many here. Your steady and reassuring presence has played a part in the healing of many people and all the clergy, staff, and patients are in your debt. You have also brought a gracious ecumenism to a situation where by its very nature all denominations and faiths must be present,” according to Reagan

She was a member of the American College of Nursing Home Administrators, the American Nurses Association, and National League for Nursing. She was also a member of the Ogdensburg Zonta Club and Sigma Theta Tau. A wing of St. Joseph’s Nursing Home in Ogdensburg was named in her honor.

She died in 2014 at St. Joseph Manor, Meadowbrook, Pa.

Her brother, Nelson, and his wife, Judith, in memory of her service and leadership to her hometown and religious order, established the scholarship. “Sister Kathleen treated each person in a kindly fashion,” Nelson Sholette said. “She was always thoughtful of others and faithful to her religious orders. Those who knew her said she never uttered an unkind word and always had something good to say about everyone.”

Donations in her memory can be made to:

Sister Kathleen Sholette Memorial Scholarship

Ogdensburg City School District

Attn: Cindy Tuttle

1100 State Street

Ogdensburg, N.Y. 13669