Margaret Erhart

Sister Margaret Erhart, RSCJ, died December 17, 2015 in Menlo Park, California. Born in Little Rock, Arkansas, August 17, 1919, Edna Margaret Erhart was the daughter of Francis James Erhart and Delphine Shader Erhart. She attended public and Catholic schools in Little Rock and graduated from Central High at only sixteen years of age. She attended Little Rock Junior College and then Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri as the only woman in the School of Architecture. In 1941, Margaret earned a bachelor's degree and then worked in her father's architecture office in Little Rock for a year. At the age of twenty-three, Margaret entered a religious order, the Society of the Sacred Heart, taking first vows in 1945 in Albany, New York. She made her final profession as a nun in Rome on July 30, 1951. While in the novitiate, her architecture training was utilized by working on special projects, one being the construction of a professional model of Society properties in Paris. Sister Erhart's ministry spanned over forty years with the majority of her work in St. Louis, Missouri. She first taught art classes at the Academy of the Sacred Heart in St. Charles, then first grade at Villa Duchesne in Frontenac, and at the old Academy of the Sacred Heart (City House), where she taught math. She later spent fifteen years at Villa Duchesne teaching grades K-8. During this time she also helped design and supervise the construction of the Kindergarten and Oak Hill School. In 1959, Sister Erhart earned a master's degree in education from Saint Louis University and from 1968-1975 taught psychology, education and architecture at Maryville College, where she also served as director of the Early Learning Center. In 1975 Sister Erhart returned to Villa Duchesne and for the next ten years she taught math enrichment, religion and administered testing. Sister Erhart spent many happy summers in religious retreats at the Monastery of Christ in the Desert in Abiquiu, New Mexico. She moved there in 1985 and served as a "parish Sister" at St. Thomas the Apostle Parish. Following this work, she taught underprivileged children at Hope Rural School in Indiantown, Florida. After a long and faithful ministerial career, Sister Erhart moved to Menlo Park, California and spent the next ten years as weaver, photographer, and assistant to the national archivist of her religious order. Even in her seventies she loved to hike and camp and found joy in every aspect of the natural world. In 2004, as her health declined, Sister Erhart moved to the Oakwood retirement center. Although Sister Erhart lived only briefly in Little Rock after college, she maintained strong relationships with friends and family there. She was a devoted and gifted correspondent and showered visitors to St. Louis and later California with love and attention. Predeceased by her parents, and one sister, Sister Erhart is survived by her beloved sister, Mrs. Mary Sue Rogers of Little Rock, Arkansas, nieces, Mrs. Frances Buchanan (Sam) and Mrs. Margo Eubanks (Ralph) and nephew Mr. John Thomas Rogers III (Peggy), all of Little Rock. Her youngest nephew Mr. Gregory (Kristi Schleder) Rogers lives in Asheville, North Carolina. She will also be greatly missed by her sisters in the Society of the Sacred Heart. A Funeral Mass was held on January 9, 2016 at the Oakwood Retirement Community in Atherton, California with burial in the community's cemetery. Memorial contributions may be made to the Society of the Sacred Heart, 4120 Forest Park Avenue, St. Louis, Mo. 63108.