Crowd celebrates life and personality of Sister Kevin John Shields

For over 50 years, Sister Kevin John worked as Director of Religious Education in Sullivan and Orange counties. Her community work, in addition, gained her humanitarian awards from groups including B’nai B’rith Women of New York State in 1990.

Contributed Photo

A crowd at St. George Church in Jeffersonville gathered on Feb. 18 to remember Sister Kevin John Shields. Afterwards, Liberty chef Craig Duffy, who had been the nun’s friend, catered the meal. Above, from left, are Rev. Antony David of St. Aloysius Church in Livingston Manor; Rev. Ignas Dhas of Woodbourne; Rev. John Kennady of Callicoon; and Rev. George Baker of Obernburg. Seated behind Baker is a nephew of the religious sister, both of whom grew up on Long Island.

Kathy Daley | Democrat

Posted Friday, February 24, 2023 6:10 am

By Kathy Daley

Always immaculately dressed in a trim gray skirt and jacket, Sister Kevin John Shields was kind, patient and droll – and no pushover.

“Sister Kevin John (Shields) was a beautiful person and a great leader,” said Christina Neist, speaking Feb. 18 from the pulpit at the Church of St. George in Jeffersonville.

A crowd of over 150 packed the church as Neist, a TV production manager in New York City and formerly of Woodbourne, recounted her teenage days with the Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) in Sullivan County.

“Sister provided a second family for us,” Neist said. “She was a leader who could see every person in the room. We could trust her with our faith and our emotions.”

“Eventually, we grew up – and then we became officers in the military, social workers in the county. We had had the ultimate teacher. She was a lifelong friend, guiding our faith and loving us.”

Shields died on Jan. 28 after an accident in Liberty four days earlier. Her last days, happily, were at the Amityville, Long Island convent where, in 1951, she had entered the Sisters of St. Dominic.

Her ministry as an educator began in 1953 and she taught in Queens, Brooklyn and Long Island. During summers, however, she worked in Sullivan County at St. Joseph’s Camp for children in Forestburgh. In 1977, she made if official and began directing Religious Education in Sullivan County, a position she held until she died. And the nun’s CYO activities were key to many children.

Liberty resident Christy Conti Hernandez recounted a day as a CTO teen when the nun went above and beyond.

“As a teenager with working parents, no driver’s license and living in the tiny town of Grahamsville,” said Hernandez, “I found myself one afternoon without a ride to a CYO event in Obernburg. When I called Sister to tell her I would be unable to attend, her response was immediate: ‘Get your shoes on, I’m coming to get you!’“

After the meeting, held close to an hour from Grahamsville, the nun drove Hernandez back home and then proceeded to Liberty. “A three-hour ride for just one kid,” marveled Hernandez.

“Sister, in her profound spiritual wisdom, recognized the value of each person,” Hernandez said, who is the parish secretary at St. Peter’s Church in Liberty.

Another speaker, Rev. Bob Porpora of St. Peter’s Church in Monticello, confessed that he had known the nun from his own childhood. His parents were friends with Sister Kevin John. She had read from scripture at his own ordination as a priest.

“She was a woman of strength and dignity,” he said. “She gave her time, she was present, she cared deeply.”

Practically right up to the moment of her own death, the sister was imparting spiritual words of wisdom. On Jan. 12, Hernandez, the adult, attended a Religious Education Coordinators’ meeting in Sister Kevin’s home.

“That evening,” said Hernandez, “Sister left us with these words: ‘Your work in bringing Christ to others is the most important work this side of eternity.’”