Grace Mends Marriages

Marriage relationships may seem to be beyond the realm of a Marianist nun, but Sister Grace Luther, Ph.D., is eminently prepared to talk about the subject by virtue of her years of training and wealth of experience.

Her deep concern for the wellbeing of the family drives her to help couples and families live happier lives. The desire “to do something,” led Sister Grace to alter her career plans to be an English and social studies teacher, and seek education and training in family-life counseling.

Fresh from the University of Dayton with an education degree in 1948, she spent a year teaching seventh-grade students in Ohio. The following year she entered the Marianist Sisters, and during the 1950s and early 1960s taught at various Texas Catholic schools.

Later, during a five-year assignment as women’s residence hall director at the University of Dayton, Luther found herself counseling the same students with relationship problems again and again. By then she’d earned a master’s degree in education. On completing her counseling doctorate in 1972, she was hired by St. Mary’s University “and lived happily ever after,” she says.

In the mid-1970s, a well-publicized scandal in San Antonio gave her the idea for a program that would train graduate students in marriage and family counseling. Her efforts added marriage and family therapy to St. Mary’s graduate and continuing education offerings.

Justifiably proud of her long record of helping people live happier lives, Sister Grace says the birth of St. Mary’s first doctoral program in 1989 fulfilled one of her most cherished dreams.

Sister Grace Luther, F.M.I., retired from teaching since 1996, has been a Marianist for 54 years.