Sister Raymunde McKay, 86; Marymount President Oversaw Loyola Merger

Sister Raymunde McKay, the former president of Marymount College who helped complete the merger with Loyola University that formed Loyola Marymount University, the largest Catholic university in Southern California, has died. She was 86.

McKay died Feb. 1 of cancer at the Marymount Convent in Tarrytown, N.Y.

Born in Northern Ireland, McKay joined the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary in 1936. She trained at the London School of Economics, gaining her bachelor’s degree there before earning her master’s at Fordham University in New York City.

Upon completing her education, McKay served for a number of years as principal of Marymount School in New York City. She eventually founded Marymount Manhattan College, an all-women’s college there.

In 1964, McKay moved to Southern California to join Marymount College as its new president. It was undergoing some difficult challenges in the years right after her arrival. Located on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, the college was fairly remote.

“At the time, there was nothing there,” McKay told an interviewer. “No public transportation, no recreation facilities, and no young men. The 90% of our students who boarded were completely isolated.”

McKay realized that enrollment, which at the time of the merger numbered 350, would begin declining if steps were not taken to address the problem. She decided on trying for a merger with another major Catholic college in the Southland.

Renee Harrangue, who at the time was academic dean of Marymount College and is now a professor of psychology and director of the Marymount Institute at Loyola Marymount, was on the panel that reviewed issues involved in the merger with Loyola University.

“She was such an interesting person, because there was no obstacle that she couldn’t overcome, nothing that could stop her,” Harrangue recalled. “She was strong, honest, and she could really see the gifts that people had. More than anything, I just remember her strength.”

And McKay was firm in her belief that the name Marymount would be a part of the school’s new name.

“I would leave those meetings [on the merger] and tell Sister McKay that it was no use,” Harrangue said. “And she would send me right back in there and tell me to fight harder. Finally, she told me, ‘No Marymount, no merger.’ ”

In 1973, the merger with Loyola University was completed. Located in Westchester, Loyola Marymount University now has an enrollment of 5,300 undergraduates and nearly 3,000 graduate students.

After the merger, McKay retained the presidency for a brief time before returning to the classroom to teach economics.

In 1986, she returned to Marymount Manhattan College as interim president. She worked and lived at the New York City school until 1990. McKay retired in 1994, and moved to the Marymount Convent.

McKay is survived by two sisters.

A Mass in her name will be said on Feb. 27 at Sacred Heart Chapel on the Loyola Marymount University campus.