Funeral Mass for Sister Mariellen Phelps, OP (Order of Preachers), 99, who died Wednesday, Sept. 9 at the Mohun Health Care Center, will be celebrated Wednesday, Sept. 23 at the Motherhouse of the Dominican Sisters of Peace. Burial will be at St. Joseph Cemetery, Columbus.
She was born Elizabeth Phelps on Oct. 28, 1926 in Wooster to Lester and Ann (Thovier) Phelps.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in education from St. John College in Cleveland in 1956 and a master’s degree in administration and guidance from the University of Colorado in 1971.
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She entered the congregation of the Dominican Sisters of Our Lady of the Elms in Akron (now the Dominican Sisters of Peace) in 1943 and pronounced her vows on Aug. 26, 1945.
She was a tutor at the Dominican Learning Center in Columbus from 2014-17. She also taught at schools in Youngstown, Alliance, Akron and Cleveland, served as a principal and religious education director in Colorado, then spent 19 years as outreach coordinator at the Crown Point Ecology Center in Akron. She entered a ministry of service and presence at the Motherhouse in 2017 and became a resident of Mohun in 2021.
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She was preceded in death by her parents; brothers Lester, Kenneth and Robert; and a sister, Rosemary Whapham. She is survived by a sister, Nancy.