Alumni Reunion Weekend Honors Mary Hehir O’Donnell ‘61 and Margaret Mahony Prowse ‘61 with Père Gailhac Awards

Mary Hehir O’Donnell ’61 entered Marymount College in 1957 and graduated from Marymount Manhattan College in 1961 in the first class to graduate from the newly independent college. She received a Master of Science degree in education from Hunter College, and, like many of her classmates, began teaching in the New York City public schools. 

Soon after graduation, O’Donnell became an active member of Alumnae Association, which preceded the current MMC Alumni Association. She served as a member of the Alumnae-Senior Dinner Committee, the Reunion Committee, and as a class agent and member of the Alumnae Advisory Board. O’Donnell is a past president and past vice-president of the Alumnae Association, and past president of its Westchester County Chapter. Currently, O’Donnell is the class agent, a member of the MMC Reunion Committee, and a member of the college’s 75th Anniversary Celebration Committee. Her service to the college spans half a century. 

O’Donnell was elected to the Tuckahoe Board of Education in 1981, and served as its president in 1983. As a school board member, she advocated for a full-day kindergarten, gifted and talented programs, and program accessibility for children with disabilities. She is co-founder of the Eastchester Committee for the Disabled, and helped establish a Bronxville, Eastchester, Tuckahoe Consortium for the Gifted and Talented. After completing her term of office on the Board of Education, O’Donnell’s career flourished when she was appointed as Assistant to the Eastchester Town Supervisor, a position she held for 10 years. After leaving local government, O’Donnell produced and hosted “Q & A,” a cable TV program on the Westchester public access channel. In 1995, she became Director of Alumnae Services at Marymount College, Tarrytown. 

In 2001, O’Donnell joined a grassroots effort to establish a land trust and create a nature preserve in Saugerties, N.Y., where her family owns a second home. She is a founding and current member of the board of directors for the land trust, Esopus Creek Conservancy, which owns and maintains the 161-acre Esopus Bend Nature Preserve. She serves as the conservancy’s Outreach Committee chair, webmaster, and copy editor/layout designer for its newsletters. 

O’Donnell resides in Bronxville, N.Y., with her husband of 43 years, Charles F. O’Donnell. She is the mother of Keara O’Donnell Gordon, Charles F. O’Donnell, Jr., Caitlin O’Donnell Greatrex, and grandmother to her seven grandchildren. 

Born in New York City, Margaret Mahony Prowse ’61 grew up living on the Upper East Side within walking distance of Marymount Manhattan College.

Prowse is the daughter of Irish parents who immigrated to the United States in the 1920s. Neither of her parents attended college, but Prowse said, “They both recognized the value of a good education, having lived through the difficult depression years. They were a constant encouragement to me in my studies, believing that hard work and education were the keys to success.” 

Prowse majored in mathematics and minored in economics and physics, earning her undergraduate degree in 1961 from Marymount Manhattan. After graduation, Prowse followed her dream of working for a large corporation and began learning more about computers. She was offered a job with Standard Oil of New Jersey (now Exxon), where she continued to work until 1996. While at Exxon, she worked for several affiliates of Exxon in different parts of world. She also earned a master’s degree in mathematics from Fordham University and took a number of finance and computer courses at New York University. 

Prowse, who completed her education with financial assistance from her parents, a Culpepper Foundation scholarship, and grants from the Exxon Educational Foundation, established the Margaret Mahony Prowse Scholarship in support of MMC students. Prowse and her husband also established scholarships at Fordham School of Graduate Studies and St. Jean Baptist High School. 

Prowse and her husband now split their time between the United Kingdom and the United States. . Her extended family now includes three stepchildren and eight grandchildren. 

The Père Gailhac Award is named in honor of Père Jean Gailhac, who founded the Institute of the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary (RSHM) on February 24, 1849, in Béziers, France. As the group’s spiritual director, Père Gailhac called together Appollonie Pelissier Cure, Eulalie Vidal, Rosalie Gibbal, Rose Jeantet, Cecile Cambon and Marie Rogues to form a community dedicated to work in the Good Shepherd, a shelter for women and an orphanage. 

Marymount Manhattan College is an urban, independent, liberal arts college. The mission of the College is to educate a socially and economically diverse student body by fostering intellectual achievement and personal growth and by providing opportunities for career development.

Published: May 17, 2011