Sister M. Eugene Fortado
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Sister M. Eugene (Catherine Alice) Fortado, 94, a Sister of Mercy for 76 years, died August 14, 2020, after a period of declining health. A native of Gloucester, Massachusetts, she was the daughter of the late Frederick and Katherine (Mitchell) Fortado.
Sister Eugene held an M.A. and a B.A. in education from Mount St. Mary College, Hooksett, New Hampshire. She was a dedicated educator at Catholic elementary schools in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. In New Hampshire she taught at Our Lady of Perpetual Help, St. Raphael, Blessed Sacrament, and St. Patrick in Manchester, and St. John in Concord. In Massachusetts she taught at St. Mary Star of the Sea in East Boston, and St. Ann in Gloucester. Sister Eugene also taught religious education at these two parishes as well as St. Joachim in Rockport, retiring from teaching in 1990. She remained in her beloved Gloucester volunteering with the remedial reading program for grades 1-5 at St. Ann School until 2001 and did outreach ministry to the homebound until 2015. Sister Eugene moved to the Warde Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Windham, New Hampshire in 2016. She is remembered for her delight in teaching little children, her kindness, gentle spirit, and her love for the Sisters of Mercy.
Sister Eugene is survived by the members of her Mercy Community, her sister Elizabeth Stanton, her niece Kate Dunphy with whom she was very close, and numerous nieces, nephews, grandnieces, and grandnephews. She was predeceased by four sisters: Edna Calder, Patricia Maliski, Virginia Lattof and Mary Lang; and five brothers: James, Fred, Albert, Everett, and Walter Fortado, Sr.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Monday, August 24, 2020, at 10 a.m., at St. Matthew Church, 2 Searles Road, Windham, New Hampshire. Burial will be at St. Joseph Cemetery, Bedford, New Hampshire.
Memorial donations may be made to the Sisters of Mercy-Northeast, 15 Highland View Road, Cumberland, RI 02864-1124, and online at www.sistersofmercy.org/northeast.
Arrangements are in the care of the Carrier Family Funeral Home, 38 Range Road, Windham, NH 03087. To leave a message of condolence, please visit www.carrierfuneralhome.com.