Sister Magdalen; Ex-President of Mt. St. Mary’s

Sister Magdalen Coughlin, the former president of Mount St. Mary’s College who built the school into a national model of multicultural education serving the changing demographics of Southern California, died Monday. She was 64.

Sister Magdalen, who was president from 1976 to 1989 and later became the first person to hold the college’s title of chancellor, died peacefully in her sleep after a long bout with cancer, according to college spokeswoman Lucy Lee. The sister’s family was at her bedside at Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital in Inglewood.

Under Sister Magdalen’s leadership, the school that once served affluent Anglo women became increasingly diverse, welcoming Latina, African American and Asian students from a full spectrum of economic, cultural and educational backgrounds.

She helped to develop diversity in both the two-year program at the college’s Doheny Campus on the former Doheny estate on Chester Place in Downtown Los Angeles and the four-year liberal arts program on the Chalon campus in West Los Angeles.

Sister Magdalen allocated grant money and other college funds to support multicultural research and teaching. Even after leaving the presidency, she continued to raise funds and promote programs to assist underprivileged students.

Ever an ambassador for the college run by her Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondolet, Sister Magdalen helped Mount St. Mary’s gain national recognition and respect as a top liberal arts college.

Urging her students to become “engaged in the common good,” she set a personal example as a presence in the community. She was named to a variety of boards and committees, many through connections made at the Trusteeship for the Betterment of Women, an “old girls’ club” formed in 1980.

At the time of her death, Sister Magdalen served on the Mayor’s Advisory Panel on Ethics in Charity, the advisory board of the American Jewish Committee’s Skirball Institute on American Values, the board of trustees of the J. Paul Getty Trust, and the board of directors of the Southern California Assn. of Philanthropy.

She had also served on boards of St. John’s Seminary College in Camarillo and St. Catherine’s College in St. Paul, Minn., the Carrie Estelle Doheny Foundation, the American Council on Education, the Los Angeles Commission on the Status of Women and the California Council for the Humanities.

“And the important thing,” commented former Times columnist Zan Thompson, herself a 1980 graduate of Mount St. Mary’s, “is that the other members of these bodies each think that Sister devotes her time unstintingly to that one. She does. She seems to have found some marvelous, bottomless sea of time and energy so that everything she turns her hand to gets her complete attention.”

At the Trusteeship for the Betterment of Women, Sister Magdalen rubbed elbows with such powerful contemporaries as appeals court Justice Joan Dempsey Klein, singer Helen Reddy, Motown Productions President Suzanne de Passe and aviator and investor Brooke Knapp. She named some to her own college board. Sister Magdalen told The Times in 1987 that she welcomed sharing with the prominent women such stressful issues as how to fire people and lighter ones such as whether she should wear a habit.

Born Patricia Coughlin in Wenatchee, Wash., Sister Magdalen was the only daughter and one of four children of William and Cecilia Coughlin.

A teacher before she became an administrator, Sister Magdalen earned a bachelor’s degree in history and social sciences from the College of St. Catherine, a master’s in medieval history at Mount St. Mary’s and a doctorate in American history from USC. She also spent a year studying history at the University of Nijmegen in the Netherlands on a Fulbright scholarship.

Sister Magdalen taught history at Alemany High School in San Fernando in the 1960-61 school year, and at St. Mary’s Academy in Los Angeles for the next two years, then began teaching at Mount St. Mary’s in 1963. She served as dean for academic development there from 1970 to 1974, and spent two years as regional superior of her order before taking over the college presidency.

Among her honors were the YWCA Achievement Award in 1982, the Women of Business Award in 1984, the Big Sister Woman of Achievement Award in 1986 and the Los Angeles Dodgers Education Hero award in 1991.

She is survived by three brothers, John, Joseph and Thomas Coughlin, who live in the Seattle area.

The funeral liturgy is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Carondolet Center Chapel, 11999 Chalon Road in Brentwood, after viewing hours beginning at 1:30 p.m. and a rosary at 4:30 p.m.

Memorial contributions can be made to the Sister Magdalen Coughlin Endowed Scholarship Fund at Mount St. Mary’s College, 12001 Chalon Road, Los Angeles, CA 90049.