Sister M. Assumpta Hintz, 1924-2010: Nun's business skills put to use by her order

12/16/2010

Sister M. Assumpta Hintz, OSF, whose skills in the business office were put to use for decades by her order, died Monday in the Rosary Care Center of the Sisters of St. Francis, Sylvania, where she had lived for three years.

She was 86 and the precise cause of death was unknown. Sister Assumpta had fallen in her room three weeks earlier and seriously injured her neck.

Sister Assumpta was 29 when she professed her first vows, a relatively late age to do so in the 1940s, said her friend and colleague Sister Mary Thill.

Before deciding to become a sister, she worked for Owens-Illinois Inc., the large maker of glass containers, where she acquired her office skills.

Upon professing her final vows in 1952, Sister Assumpta taught elementary school for a year at Our Lady Queen of Heaven school in Detroit. She was then sent to work in the business offices of a succession of hospitals sponsored by the sisters in North Platte, Neb.; Hamtramck, Mich.; Refugio, Bryan, and Brenham in Texas, and Sandusky.

She acquitted herself well wherever she went, Sister Mary said.

"Anyone who worked with her just enjoyed her and said she was a pleasure to work with," she said. "She got along with lay workers and sisters. She was one of those people you'd give something to do and she'd do it."

Sister Assumpta worked in the office, but pitched in wherever she was needed. She told stories of helping to carry heavy patients upstairs in a small community hospital that lacked an elevator.

In the early 1970s, she returned to Sylvania to work in the order's finance office on the Lourdes College campus, which is now known as the Sylvania Franciscan Village.

She remained on the job there for more than 30 years. In 2007, her health weakened by strokes, she entered the Rosary Care Center.

The last year of her life was difficult, as it saw the passing of her biological sister, Dorothy Brown, and her best friend, Sister M. Margaret Janowiec, with whom she loved to play cards.

Sister Assumpta was born in Toledo, one of Cecelia and Walter Hintz's nine children.

Surviving are her sister, Phyllis Bugaj, and nieces and nephews.

Services will be at 4 p.m, Friday in Our Lady Queen of Peace Chapel on the Sylvania campus, 6832 Convent Blvd., where a wake will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday.

Tributes to the Sisters of St. Francis are suggested.

Contact Carl Ryan at: carlryan@theblade.com or 419-724-6050.