All are welcome to share a wish or favorite memory for Sister Munch by June 27, 2025 here.
Sister Margaret Munch has blessed generations of Academy students with her loving presence. She was recently fêted as this year’s Chemin de Fer Honorary Chair, surrounded by RSCJ, faculty, staff, parents, board members, alumni, parents of alumni, and friends. In June, she will move to Oakwood, the Religious of the Sacred Heart retirement center in Atherton, CA.
Sister Munch has spent much of her life devoted to the Society of the Sacred Heart. Born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska, Margaret attended high school and college at Duchesne Academy, which was founded in 1881. She was drawn to the nuns who educated her and a life as a Religious, entering the Society of the Sacred Heart in 1956.
“The education was wonderful,” Sister Munch remembers. “But especially the love and the relationship with the Religious really spoke to me. I had several wonderful experiences there. It really confirmed the thought that God was calling me to the Society.”
Her early years were spent at our sister schools in Chicago – Sheridan Road and Woodlands Academy. She earned her Master’s in Education, then attended Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Boston.
In 1991, Sister Munch joined the faculty at the Academy, the home of her beloved Philippine. Over the next years, she occupied the sun-filled classroom on the second floor of the historic Science Wing. To decades of students, Sister Munch is the quintessential educator. She inspired them with her love of language, introduced them to Greek mythology, directed them in plays and taught them to speak with courage and confidence.
“Like so many other former students, I am forever grateful to Sister Munch for introducing me to poetry and diagramming sentences,” reflects Doc Crotzer ’98.
Sister Munch embodies the deep, steadfast faith of St. Philippine Duchesne. Whether here in St. Charles or journeying to Old St. Ferdinand in Florissant, students – and their parents — learn about the life of our school’s foundress through Sister Munch’s palpable passion for Philippine and sharing her story. Faculty and staff have been the beneficiaries of her wisdom and abiding faith.
“Sister Munch has done so much for the school over the years…she’s been an educator to so many students. She’s been a mentor to so many educators of the Sacred Heart,” says John Storjohann. “But I think the gift that I remember the most about her is her love and passion for Philippine and how she passes it on to all of us. It’s a gift that she’s shown in her words and the plays she has developed with the children, and in her daily prayer and interaction when she joins us.”
She has followed in the footsteps of our founder, leading pilgrimages to Sugar Creek, Kansas where Philippine lived among the Potawatomi. Her connection to Philippine is profound and when she speaks of her, Sister Munch’s love shines through and she is often overwhelmed with emotion.
“Sister Munch animates the stories of Philippine for all of us with zeal, passion, and accuracy. Each time Sister Munch recants these details, she does so with a freshness and energy that is vested in her own genuine love and admiration for Philippine,” notes Laura (Mullen) Haroian ‘76.
Following her retirement from teaching in 2018, Sister Munch moved into her role as Sacristan at the Academy, preparing for masses with students, and prayerfully setting out the Eucharist for Adoration on First Fridays. Her presence is a gift to all. She directs the annual “Philippine Play,” meeting with Sixth Class students to bring Philippine to life. She is the historian, the “keeper of the flame.”
For more than 33 years, Sister Munch has graced our campus, bringing a sense of peace, a devotion to Philippine and the gift of her beautiful spirit. Her students, colleagues, and friends are changed by their experience with her.
“It has been a privilege and a blessing to be here at the Academy, this holy ground, where over 200 years ago, St. Philippine Duchesne struggled on the frontier to bring the knowledge of the love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to a new continent,” shares Sister Munch. “And I am so grateful for all the people with whom I have worked over these past 30 plus years to continue the mission of Scared Heart Education.”
Sister Munch will be missed as she moves to Oakwood in Atherton, CA. But we know, just as St. Philippine Duchesne, her “heart will abide here.”
Sister Munch concludes, “I think the world needs our students to help make this a better world. A world of acceptance of all people, a world of compassion, of reconciliation, of love. We are all children of God.”
