Sister Mary Clemente Davlin O. P. | |
|---|---|
 Portrait courtesy of the Sinsinawa Dominican Congregation archives. | |
| Personal | |
| Born | March 6, 1929 Chicago, Illinois |
| Died | December 19, 2017 (aged 88) Hazel Green, Wisconsin |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
Mary Clemente Davlin (March 6, 1929 – December 19, 2017) was a Sinsinawa Dominican Sister, an advocate for diversity in higher education, and a noted scholar of medieval studies, particularly the allegorical poem Piers Plowman. The Sister Mary Clemente Davlin Diversity Leadership Award at Dominican University is given annually in her honor, as is a Waters, Davlin, Crapo “sisters” scholarship specifically for African American students.[1]
Marguerite "Marge" Davlin was born on Chicago's South Side to Mary Margaret Ryan Davlin and John Joseph Davlin. She was known as Marge all her life.[2][1] In Chicago she attended St. Philip Neri elementary school and Aquinas Dominican high school. She earned a bachelor's degree at Rosary College (now the Arts and Sciences sub-college of Dominican University) and a master's degree at the University of Wisconsin Madison, after which she studied Italian and violin at the Pius XII Institute in Florence, Italy. She earned a doctorate at the University of California Berkeley, working with noted medievalist Charles Muscatine (further notable for being fired for refusing to sign a McCarthy oath), whose work V. A. Kolve called "the gold standard in our field."[3] She wrote her 1964 dissertation on Piers Plowman.[4] She completed summer studies at Cambridge University, Sophia University in Tokyo, Loyola University Chicago, and Chicago Musical College.[5]
She taught at Aquinas High School and DuSable High School on Chicago's South Side before entering the Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa novitiate in Wisconsin. She then taught English at Edgewood College in Madison, Wisconsin for three years, went to Berkeley for her doctorate, and then returned to serve for seven more years, six as department chair.[6]
She joined the faculty of the Rosary College of Arts and Sciences of Dominican University in 1970.[7] Then that fall she became department chair.[8] Her main contributions were in diversity. "She spent a lifetime working hard to broaden and diversify Dominican’s student body," said Mickey Sweeney, a professor of English at Rosary College. "She felt it was especially important to strengthen Dominican’s relationships to African-American students and families."[9]
Sr. Davlin also tutored at Malcolm X College after retirement, and played second violin in the Oak Park-River Forest Symphony from 1970 onward, becoming one of its longest-serving members.[10] She was an expert on the medieval allegorical poem Piers Plowman, and led academic seminars and even religious retreats based on the text.[11] She was a member of the Medieval Academy of America, the Modern Language Association, and the Langland Society.[1]
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She died at St. Dominic Villa in Hazel Green, Wisconsin. Hundreds of people packed into Rosary Chapel at Dominican University for her funeral.[17] Dominican University President Donna M. Carroll presided, and the Rev. Richard Woods celebrated the mass. Scholarships such as the Waters, Davlin, Crapo "Sisters" scholarship (for African-American students with financial need), continue in her name, and Dominican University also gives the Sister Clemente Davlin Diversity Leadership Award to faculty at the annual Caritas Veritas Symposium.[18]
