By Catholic News Service • Posted September 4, 2014

ALBANY, N.Y. (CNS) — Sister Mary T. Clark, a member of the Religious of the Sacred Heart who was an expert on St. Augustine, died Sept. 1 at Teresian House in Albany. She was 100.

A funeral Mass was to be celebrated Sept. 6 at the Teresian House chapel.

Sister Clark, born Oct. 23, 1913, taught for more than 30 years at Manhattanville College in Harrison, New York, her alma mater.

Sister Clark spent six years as bursar at Villanova College in Philadelphia, after which she earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy from Manhattanville in 1939. She later earned a master’s degree and doctorate from Fordham University in New York, and did a post-doctoral fellowship at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.

She entered religious life in 1939, made her first vows in 1947 and made her final profession in Rome in 1947.

Sister Clark taught middle school and high school students at Kenwood Convent of the Sacred Heart in Albany, 1942-45, and 1947-49. She also coached hockey and served as dormitory mistress. She served in a similar capacity at her high school alma mater, Overbrook School of the Sacred Heart in Philadelphia, 1945-47. She also taught at the Sacred Heart schools in Rochester, 1949-51, and New York City, 1952-53.

Sister Clark first started teaching philosophy in 1951 at Manhattanville. She spent one year in a convent run by her order in New York City, then returned in 1953.

After 33 years of teaching philosophy, including 12 years as department chair, she retired but continued to teach each spring semester. Her research and writing were primarily on Augustine, Neoplatonic philosophy and Thomas Aquinas. The college named an endowed chair in Christian philosophy in her honor.

She once said that the “gift I’ve received from my Manhattanville education was the realization that there is no freedom without truth.”

Among the books she wrote or co-wrote are “Augustine,” “An Aquinas Reader,” “Augustine: Philosopher of Freedom,” “Logic: a Practical Approach,” “Augustinian Personalism,” “Discrimination Today: Guidelines for Civic Action,” “Augustine of Hippo: Selected Writings” and “The Problem of Freedom.”

Sister Clark served as president of the American Catholic Philosophical Association, the Metaphysical Society of America, and the Society for Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy. She also served on the executive committee of the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association. During the 1960s, she led the social action secretariat of the National Federation of Catholic College Students.

Sister Clark taught middle school and high school students at Kenwood Convent of the Sacred Heart in Albany, 1942-45, and 1947-49. She also coached hockey and served as dormitory mistress. She served in a similar capacity at her alma mater, Overbrook School of the Sacred Heart (Philadelphia), 1945-47. She also taught at the Sacred Heart schools in Rochester (1949-51) and New York City (1952-53).

Sister Clark was the recipient of the Cor Unum award in 2005, given to graduates of Sacred Heart schools and colleges from around the country who have embraced the philosophy of the Sacred Heart in their everyday lives.