“I loved Sr. Margaret. She inspired me spiritually and had a wonderful ability to draw many of us out and help us grow spiritually. We all felt so comfortable with her. She had a wonderful smile and such gentleness. She has the same qualities today.”
Blessed with wonderful parents and teachers throughout her life, education was a given for Sister Margaret Bosch, SDS. Faith and love were at the heart of her family’s values, and she fondly recalls her childhood with her three brothers, lots of sports and a close-knit family. She attended Mother of Good Counsel Parish School in Milwaukee and liked the Salvatorian Sisters, Fathers and Brothers she met there.
After graduating from Mother of Good Counsel, she attended three semesters at Mercy High School, and then expressed her desire to enter the Sisters of the Divine Savior. Sr. Margaret says, “They were so happy and simple and were such wonderful teachers. The motherhouse at St. Mary’s on 35th and Center Streets was a peaceful place.”
Over time, Sr. Margaret realized the great faith and courage her parents showed when she entered the congregation in 1943 — the same year two of her brothers were drafted into military service. It was a time of sweeping global change. Come the 1960s and ‘70s, Sr. Margaret would experience vast changes in our Church and society, but she says, those times of great challenges also brought great blessings.
Sr. Margaret’s early teaching assignments were at St. George’s near Sheboygan Falls and Holy Name School in Wausau, Wis. with 54 second-graders. She returned to Milwaukee to attend Marquette University and complete her bachelor’s degree in Latin, German and education. She also earned a master’s degree in counseling.
In 1951, Sr. Margaret was a member of the charter faculty at Divine Savior High School at 4257 N. 100th Street. The high school had opened three years earlier at 35th and Center Streets. Divine Savior and later Divine Savior Holy Angels High School would be her ministry for more than 20 years. Sr. Margaret reflects on her longtime ministry, saying, “I loved my teaching years at DS and DSHA. I tried to look at each student as a total person rather than just as a German or Latin student. In Sodality discussions and later, Christian Life Community (CLC) meetings, the students would share how God touched their lives. They were such an inspiration to me and bolstered my faith life.”
A DS alumna was quoted as saying, “‘I loved Sr. Margaret. She inspired me spiritually and had a wonderful ability to draw many of us out and help us grow spiritually. We all felt so comfortable with her. She had a wonderful smile and such gentleness. She has the same qualities today.”
Sr. Margaret points out that education has been the theme for all her ministries whether in the classroom, provincial or congregational leadership, the Salvatorian Sisters’ formation program, or the Milwaukee archdiocesan permanent diaconate program. All these ministries required that she continue learning and growing.
“Wonderful blessings,” is how she describes her degrees from Marquette University and master’s degree in liturgical theology from St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minn. “I am so grateful for these educational experiences that helped me serve our Church more effectively.”
She adds, “Serving as General Secretary in Rome from 1990-94, I developed a more global outlook on all of life. I am interested in the needs of our international sisters and the people they serve throughout the world. I am filled with such gratitude for the many opportunities for service, education and travel. I am especially grateful for the persons I encountered, those whose lives I touched and those whose lives touched mine. I am a better person because of them.”
