Sr. Margaret Welch, SNDdeN, (formerly Sr. Mary Bartholomew), went peacefully home to her Good God on June 8, 2021, at the St. Julie Billiart Residential Care Center in Ipswich, MA. She was born Margaret Mary Welch in 1934 in Waltham, MA to parents Bartholomew M. Welch and Mary (Slauenwhite) Welch of Waltham. She entered the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur on August 1, 1951, taking her First Vows in 1954 and her Perpetual Vows in 1959. Sister Margaret earned a BA from Emmanuel College and MEd from Salem State.

After completing thirty-six years of classroom teaching here and in Japan, then spending five years as a cook in homeless shelters in Lowell, Lawrence, and Boston, Sr. Margaret began her very active retirement in Ipswich. She served as a receptionist, a driver, and a tireless organizer of fundraisers and donation drives to benefit those less fortunate. She was acutely attentive to the needs of the poor, and consistently generous to local charities.

In addition to her many years of teaching, cooking, and charity work, Sr. Margaret participated as a control in more than fifty medical research projects to benefit the aging population. With her characteristic dry wit, Sr. Margaret would tell her surprised listeners she did it “for the money”. Sister used the stipends she earned to defray the expense of sending much-needed supplies to her Sisters of Notre Dame serving in Third World countries.

Another and equally important motivation, in her own view, was the opportunity the medical studies gave her to use her God-given gift of good health to aid those not so blessed. Generous, witty, and deeply thoughtful to her very last days, Sr. Margaret Welch even donated her body for medical research, as one final act to benefit others.

Sr. Margaret Welch was predeceased by her sister, Jane Leard of Waltham. She is survived by two sisters, Joanne Mente of Concord and Ann Purcell of Auburndale, her many loving nieces and nephews, her grand-nephews, and one grand-niece. Sr. Margaret is also survived by her Sisters and Associates in the Notre Dame community, her many friends and former students, and the devoted staff of the St. Julie Billiart Residential Care Center.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated privately at Our Lady Queen Chapel in Ipswich, MA, on Friday, June 11, 2021 at 10:30 am. Memorial Donations to the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, 30 Jeffreys Neck Road, Ipswich, MA 01938. The Conway Cahill-Brodeur Funeral Home, 82 Lynn Street, Peabody, MA is directing arrangements.