Sister M. Majella Berg, 87, former Marymount president

Sister M. Majella Berg, 87, former Marymount president

Sister M. Majella Berg, who was president of Marymount University in Arlington from 1960 to 1993, died April 5 at the Marymount Convent in Tarrytown, N.Y. She was 87.

She was a member of the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary for 68 years. The nation’s longest-serving female college president, Sister Majella left a lasting mark on higher education in Virginia as Marymount grew from a small, two-year women’s college into a coeducational university that enrolls more than 3,800 undergraduate and graduate students.

Born Mae Katherine Berg, Sister Majella grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y. She entered the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary order in 1934 at the age of 18 and made her first vows at Marymount in Tarrytown in 1936; she made her final vows there in 1941. Sister Majella earned a bachelor’s degree in Latin from Marymount College in Tarrytown and a master’s degree in classics from Fordham University. Later, Georgetown University and Marymount Manhattan College each awarded her honorary doctorate degrees.

Sister Majella’s first assignment was at Marymount School in New York City, where she taught Latin, history and math from 1936 to 1948. She then served as registrar and professor of classics at Marymount Manhattan College before coming to Marymount College of Virginia in 1957 to serve as registrar for a year. She was then registrar at Marymount College, Tarrytown, from 1958 to 1960.

In 1960, Sister Majella returned to Arlington as president of Marymount, then a two-year institution with just 240 students.

Her list of professional achievements at Marymount is, in essence, the history of the university through 1993. Under her leadership, Marymount became a senior college offering bachelor’s degrees in 1973, and attained university status and became fully coeducational in 1986. Sister Majella secured an endowment from the Clare Boothe Luce Fund of the Henry Luce Foundation in 1988 that remains the university’s largest single endowment component, now valued at more than $6.2 million.

Sister Majella presided over the construction or enlarging of nearly every structure on Marymount’s main campus, including the Emerson G. Reinsch Library, dedicated in 1989. During her presidency, the university acquired its Ballston campus and expanded operations to its Loudoun Academic Center in Sterling, Va. Also under Sister Majella’s leadership, Marymount became an NCAA Division III school, adding a new dimension to its athletic programs. After stepping down as president, Sister Majella remained at Marymount and continued to work on the school’s behalf. She had only recently moved to the Marymount Convent in Tarrytown.

Sister Majella was named a “Washingtonian of the Year” by Washingtonian magazine in 1990. Her name was added to the Virginia Hall of Fame in 1992 by the Virginia Commission for the Status of Women and the Virginia Business and Professional Women’s Association. That same year, she was recognized by the Arlington County Commission for the Status of Women as a Notable Woman of Arlington. In 1998, she was named to the Washington Business Hall of Fame. Pope John Paul II bestowed the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice medal upon Sister Majella in July 1993.

Sister Majella is survived by two sisters, Joan Therese Berg Cavanaugh of Islip, N.Y., and Dorothy Berg Fargello of Spring Hill, Tenn.