Sr. Renee Oliver, Osu

Sister Renee Oliver, educator, lobbyist, faith-filled religious

Sister Renee Oliver (formerly Sister Marie Renee) loved life, cherished her family, friends and community, and brought unwavering dedication to her career as a teacher and as an education lobbyist throughout her 66 years as an Ursuline sister. The former educator and advocate died Tuesday, February 25, at Regina Health Center. She was 87.

Frances Marie Oliver was born September 25, 1926, in Cleveland, one of four children born to William and Mary Violet (Carey) Oliver. The Ursuline Academy of the Sacred Heart graduate entered the Ursuline Sisters from Christ the King Parish, East Cleveland, September 24, 1946. She professed final vows August 8, 1952. She earned her undergraduate degree from St. John College and a master’s from Marquette University.

Sister Renee began her ministry career as an elementary school teacher at Holy Cross School (Euclid), and followed with tenures at St. Therese (Garfield Heights), St. Charles (Parma), Our Lady of Peace (Cleveland), and St. Paul (Euclid) before consecutive assignments at Villa Angela Academy, Beaumont School, and Lake Catholic High School.

In 1981 Sister Renee accepted a position with Citizens for Educational Freedom (CEF) in Washington, D.C., to lobby for tuition tax credits for parents of children in Catholic and other non-governmental schools. She served as the organization’s executive director in their Washington office. She visited the White House to meet with President Ronald Reagan and leaders of the coalition supporting tax credits. She also was a guest of the Reagans at a state dinner honoring a foreign dignitary.

In 1987, her dream of tax credit legislation still unrealized, Sister Renee returned home to resume her teaching career at Immaculate Conception School, Willoughby. But her tenure was short-lived, as in 1990 she returned to CEF for six more years, first in Detroit, then in the Washington area to continue what she believed to be a quest for educational justice. Though not in her time with CEF, tuition tax credits and vouchers would eventually become a reality. Her CEF colleagues had always maintained that when success was achieved “inhabitants of political circles in Washington would know that she had played an important part in the achievement.” For Sister Renee it was satisfaction enough to know that the “seeds sown by DEF had finally yielded a harvest.”

From 1996 through 2010 Sister Renee remained active in ministry, assisting with congregational work, serving in institutional advancement at Ursuline College, teaching at Cuyahoga Community College, and tutoring in the Ursuline Institute of Learning.

Hers is a legacy of service and commitment and freedom of educational choice. Sister Renee was a faith-filled religious, a dedicated educator, and a loving sister, aunt and friend.

She is survived by a brother, Raymond (wife Mary Jane) of South Euclid, a sister Patricia Treacy of Colorado, sister-in-law Sharon Oliver of California, and nieces and nephews.

Donations in Sister Renee’s name may be made to the Ursuline Sisters at www.ursulinesisters.org.

The wake for Sister Renee will be on Friday, February 28, 2014 from 3:00 to 6:45 PM. The funeral Mass will be on Friday at 7:00 PM in the Chapel of the Most Holy Trinity at the Ursuline Educational Center Motherhouse. Burial in All Souls Cemetery on Saturday, March 1, 2014 at 9:30 AM.