Graduates
Note from Sister Aloyse Hessburg to Sister Mary Nora Barber, undated
Graduates from Mount Mary College's fashion design program frequently found employment in the fashion design field, beginning with the first graduating class in 1969. The undated note to the left from Sister Aloyse Hessburg (head of the fashion design program) to Sister Mary Nora Barber (president of Mount Mary College) documents the professional accomplishments of some alumnae, as well as Sister Aloyse's well-deserved pride in how "Our fashion alumnae are going further each year."
Letter from Harry D. Schmidt to Sister Mary Nora Barber, February 6, 1976
Other sources confirm how well Mount Mary fashion design graduates fared in the professional world. To the right, a 1976 letter from Harry D. Schmidt, president of T.A. Chapman Co. in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, compliments the training that Ruth McDuffie, a Chapman Co. employee and Mount Mary graduate, received at Mount Mary. Below, records from Mount Mary, created in the late 1970s through early 1980s, compile data about graduates and show the fields of employment alumnae were working in as well as their geographic location and other information. Click each image to find more detail.
Mount Mary fashion design graduates (1969-1976)
Mount Mary fashion design graduates (1969-1980)
Mount Mary fashion design graduates (1969-1983)
Mount Mary fashion design graduates (June 1983)
Letter from Avon Lees Jr. to Sister Mary Nora Barber, April 23, 1974
Some Mount Mary fashion design alumnae continued on to further education. The 1974 letter to the left from Avon Lees Jr., president and director of the Tobe-Coburn School for Fashion Careers in New York City, notifies Sister Mary Nora Barber that Mary Ellen Wiczynski, who would graduate from the Mount Mary fashion design program that spring, had been awarded a full-tuition Fashion Fellowship at the Tobe-Coburn School after a nationwide competition.
Press release describing graduates' activities
An August 1975 press release about Sister Aloyse being awarded the Gimbels Fashion Forum Award contains information about several alumnae from the program (click the image to the right, and see pages 3 and 4 of the press release). It states "An impressive percentage of the graduates are active in a variety of fashion related fields" and indicates that "At least 16 major prizes have been won by the Mount Mary students since 1969, in fashion related-fields."
Sister Aloyse's newsletters from the late 1970s and early 1980s (see below) also provide a record of graduates' many and varied accomplishments, both personal (new houses, marriages, babies) and professional (jobs changes, careers in the fashion industry, further education). Click on an image to see more detail and additional pages. Alumnae from the fashion design program have clearly gone on to great things after their time at Mount Mary!
Newsletter from Sister Aloyse Hessburg, fall 1978
Newsletter from Sister Aloyse Hessburg, March 1981
Newsletter from Sister Aloyse Hessburg, February 1983
