Sister Joel Read make one final visit to Alverno College

 

Hundreds of people lined the campus of Alverno College on Milwaukee's south side Thursday as the funeral hearse passed containing former President Sister Joel Read.

Former and current students were joined by faculty and staff, some in their full graduation regalia.

At the funeral mass, there was much talk about Sister Read was the living embodiment of the cause for equal access to education.

"I think the best way I can carry her legacy forward is in two weeks I'm going to Argentina," Professor Desiree Pointer Mayce told CBS 58 News. "I will help a university there replicate a model that she invented."

Sister Read was Alverno's President for 35 years.

During that time, she helped her alma mater grow into an international university for Christian women.

She retired in 2003 to teach at a school in suburban Chicago.

She was 91 years old.

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett called Sister Read "a saint to the city."