St. Joseph’s Sister Frances Dunn, 90, Health Ministry Trailblazer, Is Dead

Sister Frances Dunn, a former hospital administrator and general superior of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange, is remembered for her versatility as a religious figure and as a health ministry trailblazer.

Dunn, who died Wednesday at age 90 in Orange, was equally comfortable in the boardroom, at a cocktail party or on a picket line, said a longtime friend.

During her career, she served as chief administrator of four hospitals--St. Joseph in Orange, St. Luke in Pasadena, Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital and Children’s Hospital of Orange County. She was also active in the California Hospital Assn., the hospital councils of both Southern California and Northern California and the California Conference of Catholic Hospitals.

“From the most important of people to the most needy of people, she was at home and approachable,” said Sister Nancy O’Connor, the order’s current general superior.

Dunn was born in Monrovia. The daughter of an attorney, she developed a strong sense of social justice that flavored whatever she did--from her role in the farm workers’ movement of the 1960s and 1970s to the many health clinics in which she ministered.

Educated at Mills College, Dunn entered the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange on July 6, 1931. First as a teacher and then as an X-ray technician, she declared herself “a disaster.” After electrically shocking another sister, she asked to be relieved of the X-ray job “on humanitarian grounds--before I kill somebody.”

She next worked in St. Joseph Hospital’s admitting office in Orange and found her metier--business administration.

From 1969 to 1973, Dunn was general superior of her own congregation, where she spearheaded the development of Regina Residence, a retirement home for the order’s nuns. Her vision for the home was of a place that would promote spiritual renewal for sisters in their older years. Regina Residence is now home to more than 60 retired nuns.

Inspired by her time studying health care in India and Pakistan, Dunn showed a lifelong dedication to providing health care for the poor and for migrant farm workers in California. She retired about five years ago but remained involved in the community life of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange.

Dunn died of a massive stroke. She will be remembered today at a 7:30 p.m. service at the Sisters of St. Joseph’s Mother House Chapel at 480 S. Batavia St., Orange.