Sursum Corda (Service Organization) - History - Beginnings of Marymount in L.A.

Beginnings of Marymount in L.A.

In separate though parallel developments, the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary began teaching local young women in 1923. Having been invited by Bishop John Cantwell, seven sisters of the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary, under the leadership of Mother Cecilia Rafter, R.S.H.M., formed what was first an elementary school and, shortly thereafter, a high school. Within ten years, many young women wished to continue their education with the Marymount sisters beyond high school that Marymount Junior College opened as an all-women's school on the Westwood campus of Marymount High School in 1933. Mother Gertrude Cain, R.S.H.M., served as the first president of the junior college and guided its development into a four-year college in 1948, assuming the name Marymount College of Los Angeles. In 1960, having outgrown its shared Westwood campus, Marymount College moved both its two-year program and its four-year program to the Palos Verdes Peninsula in southwestern Los Angeles.

In 1967 Sister Raymunde McKay, R.S.H.M., D.Phil., the president of Marymount College, extended an invitation to Sister Mary Felix Montgomery, C.S.J., Ph.D., General Superior of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Orange, to merge Marymount College with St. Joseph College of Orange, a four-year liberal arts college for women religious run by the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Orange, which Sister Montgomery accepted. St. Joseph College was originally formed as St. Joseph Teacher's College, a junior college affiliated with The Catholic University of America in 1953. In 1959 it was incorporated as an autonomous, four-year institution and assumed the St. Joseph College name. In 1968 Marymount and St. Joseph Colleges merged under the Marymount name with an agreement that the traditions and heritage of both the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary and Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange would be carried in the Marymount name. As part of the Marymount College Agreement, Marymount College was administered "co-equally" by the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary and the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange as members of both communities partnered in the governing, staffing, and teaching of Marymount College. Subsequently, St. Joseph College of Orange was renamed Marymount College of Orange. During the academic year, it remained a college for women religious seeking their baccalaureate degrees; college courses were offered to men and women during the summers at the Orange campus. The same year, Marymount College began its affiliation with Loyola University, moving its four-year program at the Palos Verdes campus to the Westchester campus of Loyola University. Marymount College then operated on three campuses: Palos Verdes retained its two-year program, Orange remained a campus for women religious in Orange County, and Westchester was a campus for both lay and religious women.