Sister A sister is a woman or a girl who shares one or more parents with another individual; a female sibling. The male counterpart is a brother. Although the term typically refers to a family, familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to r ...

Mary Noel Menezes OR (14 July 1930 – 31 August 2022) was a Guyanese Roman Catholic nun and historian. She was involved with the

University of Guyana The University of Guyana, in Georgetown, Guyana, is Guyana's national higher education institution. It was established in April 1963 with the following Mission: "To discover, generate, disseminate, and apply knowledge of the highest standard for ...

from 1967 to her death in 2022, as a lecturer, head of department, full professor, and

professor emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

. She specialised in Guyanese history, particularly that of

Amerindians The Indigenous peoples of the Americas are the inhabitants of the Americas before the arrival of the European settlers in the 15th century, and the ethnic groups who now identify themselves with those peoples. Many Indigenous peoples of the Am ...

and

Portuguese Guyanese A Portuguese Guyanese is a Guyanese whose ancestors came from Portugal or a Portuguese who has Guyanese citizenship. Demographics People of Portuguese descent were mainly introduced to Guyana as indentured laborers to make up for the exodus of ...

Early life

Menezes was born on 14 July 1930 in Georgetown, British Guiana, to a family of Madeiran origin. She entered the

Sisters of Mercy The Sisters of Mercy is a religious institute of Catholic women founded in 1831 in Dublin, Ireland, by Catherine McAuley. As of 2019, the institute had about 6200 sisters worldwide, organized into a number of independent congregations. They a ...

at the age of 17, moving to

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

for her religious training. She returned home in 1950 and taught at St Joseph High School until 1952, when she moved to Jamaica to attend Saint Joseph's Teachers' College. She then graduated with a diploma in education in 1954, and then until 1963 taught at the Sacred Heart Roman Catholic School in Georgetown.Sister Mary's brilliant career
''

Trinidad and Tobago Newsday ''Trinidad and Tobago Newsday'' is a daily newspaper in Trinidad and Tobago. ''Newsday'' is the newest of the three daily papers after the ''Trinidad and Tobago Guardian'' and the ''Trinidad and Tobago Express'' respectively. The newspaper was fo ...

'', 6 November 2005. Retrieved 21 November 2017.

Academia

Menezes returned to the United States to attend College Misericordia ( BA in history) and

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

( MA in Latin American history). She taught briefly at Sacred Heart College, North Carolina, and then in 1967 took up an appointment as a lecturer in the Department of History at the fledgling

. In 1970, Menezes won a

Ford Foundation The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a US$25,000 gift from Edsel Ford. By 1947, after the death ...

scholarship to study at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

, where she completed a PhD (conferred 1973) on British policy towards Guyanese Amerindians in the 19th century. In 1973, Menezes oversaw the creation of a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Th ...

program in Guyanese history, the first postgraduate degree offered by the University of Guyana. She was made head of department in 1977 and upgraded to professor of history in 1980, the first time in the university's history that position had been created. From 1978 to 1980, Menezes served as president of the Association of Caribbean Historians, the first woman to hold the position.UWI honours Sister Mary Noel Menezes
'' Stabroek News'', 3 November 2005. Retrieved 22 November 2017. She retired from teaching in 1990, and was made a

in 2009. She published her most recent book in May 2017, aged 87, which was launched by President David A. Granger (one of her former students).

Charity work and honours

From 1968 to 2003, Menezes ran the St John Bosco Orphanage in Plaisance, for boys aged three to sixteen. In 2000, she founded the Mercy Boys' Home in Georgetown for boys older than 16. She also served on the council of

St. Joseph Mercy Hospital St. Joseph Mercy Hospital is a Catholic hospital. It is Located on Parade Street, Kingston in Georgetown, Guyana. It was established by the members of the Sword of the Spirit movement and was officially opened in 1945. The hospital includes a ...

from 1985 to 2002. Menezes has received honorary degrees from

Misericordia University Misericordia University is a private Roman Catholic university in Dallas, Pennsylvania. It was founded by the Religious Sisters of Mercy in 1924 as College Misericordia; in 2007 it became a university and changed its name. The university offers ...

( LHD, 1983), the University of the West Indies (

LL.D. Legum Doctor (Latin: “teacher of the laws”) (LL.D.) or, in English, Doctor of Laws, is a doctorate-level academic degree in law or an honorary degree, depending on the jurisdiction. The double “L” in the abbreviation refers to the early ...

, 2005), and Mount Aloysius College (L.H.D., 2008). She was awarded the Golden Arrow of Achievement by the Guyanese government in 1982, and in 2015 was inducted into the

Order of Roraima The Order of Roraima of Guyana is the second highest National Award of Guyana, and is limited to only thirty five living Guyanese recipients. Established in 1976, it is awarded to any citizen of Guyana who has given outstanding service to the na ...

Personal life and death

Menezes died in Georgetown on 31 August 2022, at the age of 92.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Menezes, Mary Noel 1930 births 2022 deaths People from Georgetown, Guyana 20th-century Guyanese historians Guyanese Roman Catholics Sisters of Mercy Guyanese people of Portuguese descent Women historians Historians of the Caribbean University of Guyana faculty Misericordia University alumni Alumni of the University of London Georgetown University alumni Guyanese educators People of Madeiran descent 20th-century Roman Catholic nuns 21st-century Roman Catholic nuns 21st-century Guyanese historians