By Paula Day

She is a dedicated educator who believes the future of the Church is in the hands of the young people in Catholic schools.

Sister Dawn Gear, principal of St. John Neumann Regional School in Lilburn, celebrates 25 years as a Grey Nun of the Sacred Heart this year, and the exuberant Religious says, “I will go to my grave as an educator.”

After stints of teaching in the New York City and Philadelphia areas, Sister Dawn came to Atlanta and taught at Christ the King School. She also taught religion and was a member of St. Pius X High School’s administrative team before she helped plan and open St. John Neumann School in 1986. She has seen that school grow from a student population of 160 to 460.

“I had a Catholic education,” she explained. “That gave me the chance to put my faith into practice within the school context. I truly feel the future of the Church is in the education of our children in their faith and in giving them the opportunity to express their faith and practice it.”

In contrast to the stereotype of the Catholic school as a strict, regimented place of learning, Sister Dawn tries to foster an atmosphere of love and concern, according to her fellow Religious and housemate, Sister Rita Raffaele. This was the atmosphere that her parents, John and Elizabeth, created in her own home, Sister Dawn recalls.

Dawn Gear was born in Mont Clare, Pa., in the Philadelphia area. She is the second of five children. Until she entered religious life she was a member of St. Michael’s Byzantine Catholic Church there.

Hers was a “faith-building home,” she explains. “My parents were always doing for others.” Her father held down a second job at a dairy and saw to it that leftover milk was not thrown out, but given to children in the neighborhood. Her mother made regular but unobtrusive visits to the sick in the parish. Sister Dawn continues that generosity in her own life.

“I tease her, ‘If it’s not nailed down, it’s gone,’” Sister Rita said. Recently the two received a large ham as a gift, and Sister Dawn consulted with her companion about who should receive it.

When Dawn Gear told her parents she wanted to enter religious life, her father thought she should wait for a couple of years and “be on her own,” experiencing what holding down a job and paying one’s bills involved.

She lived at home and taught 76 students in a Catholic school making $50 a month. John Gear, who provided her with a car and gasoline, finally agreed that she might as well follow through with her plans.

“You’re not even making a dollar a kid, he pointed out good naturedly.

She had decided to enter the Grey Nuns whom she met her first year of teaching because she recognized their dedicated service to others and their ability as educators.

“I was just going to try it (religious life) and see if I liked it. It’s 25 years later. I guess you can say I like it.”

Sister Dawn is an ardent Notre Dame football fan whose interest in the sport was sparked as a youngster. The Gear family attended games in which any one of her three brothers was playing. She now follows every Notre Dame game. Other “loves” include Baskin Robbins ice cream and, most especially, her sister, Linda’s young son, Daniel.

“She has incredible energy. She gives 150 percent,” Sister Sally said. “Everyone knows Dawn gets married to her ministry. She’ll spend hours and hours working, putting things in order, planning for the next day. She always goes over and beyond the call of duty.”

Sister Sally describes her fellow Religious as “fearless in what she believes in” and “a woman of integrity and honesty - an Israelite in whom there is no guile, - that’s Dawnie.”

If a student breaks a school rule, Sister Dawn will listen to all sides but will advise parents who disagree with the regulation that they should probably find another school for their child, Sister Sally explained.

“She never tries to be what she isn’t” her friend added. “She says it the way it is, honestly and openly.”

Nancy Donnellan, sister of Archbishop Thomas Donnellan under whose leadership St. John Neumann School was planned and built, says her brother had high regard for Sister Dawn as a professional as well as a caring and warm person who could relate to both students and parents.

A graduate of D’Youville College in Buffalo, N.Y., Sister Dawn received a master’s degree in education and specialist degree in administration from Georgia State University.

She served in a variety of elected positions for the Atlanta Conference of Sisters from 1979 to 1985 including a three-year term as president. She is currently a member of the archdiocesan Board of Education, appointed in 1986. She will serve as vice president of the board in the 1990-91 academic year.

The local community of Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart celebrated her jubilee with Sister Dawn in March. They joined her brothers and sister, other friends and well-wishers at a jubilee Mass celebrated May 19 by Father Richard Lopez at St. John Neumann Church. A reception and dance followed in Donnellan Hall.

In his homily Father Lopez noted that Sister Dawn had grown up in the Byzantine Rite and was familiar with icons. The Seventh Ecumenical Council defined icons as “testimonies to God’s presence among us,” Father Lopez said. “And that’s what she’s been with her hues of humor, honesty, and zeal to call children to excellence in faith and studies.”

“One thing that haunts all sisters and priests,” he continued, “is a sense of inadequacy. And it is this haunting that has given Sister Dawn the hue of humility.”

“She’s an embarrassment to the forces of evil in our society which tell us happiness comes only from success, power, money and sex. Here’s a woman who for 25 years has had none of the above, but has found happiness in her vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.”

Sister Dawn celebrates her silver jubilee as a Grey Nun of the Sacred Heart during the year which may see the canonization of the congregation’s founder.

The Vatican announced on April 9 that Marguerite d’Youville will soon be honored as a saint. The exact date of the canonization will be announced in the near future.

Born in 1701 near Montreal, Canada, Marguerite Dufrost de Lajemmerais married Francois d’Youville in 1722. After his death eight years later, she began caring for the homeless, sick and aging at first in her home and then at the General Hospital of which she was named administrator in 1745.

She and three other women founded the Grey Nuns, Sisters of Charity of Montreal, in 1737, to serve the needy and poor and to live in charity and simplicity. Marguerite d’Youville died in 1771, was declared Venerable in 1955 and beatified in 1959. The Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart were founded in 1921 by a group of Grey Nuns of Ottawa.