Sr. Barbara Schamber, SP, died March 23 at her home in Olympia, Washington. She had been a Sister of Providence for 62 years and had held multiple leadership positions in her congregation as well as governance and sponsorship roles with Providence St. Joseph Health.
"Sr. Barbara was indefatigable in supporting and defending and advancing what she knew was right and just and good for our ministry, and she will be deeply missed by all who knew her," said Dougal Hewitt, Providence St. Joseph Health executive vice president and chief mission and sponsorship officer.
"Her passion for religious life as a Sister of Providence was inspirational," said Sr. Kathleen Pruitt, CSJP, congregation councillor for the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace. "Her commitment to Providence St. Joseph and health care in general was unequivocal."
According to an online biography, Sr. Schamber's call to enter the congregation unfolded during her years as a student at Providence High School in Burbank, California. Once she decided to enter religious life, she was one of 22 postulants who in 1961 were the first class to enter the new College of Sister Formation at Seattle University's Providence Heights campus in Issaquah, Washington. Sr. Schamber began her ministry as a teacher at Catholic elementary schools in Washington and California before becoming principal at the Providence Montessori School in Portland, Oregon.
In 1985, she became superior of the Sisters of Providence's Sacred Heart Province. After that, she became principal of St. Elisabeth School in Van Nuys, California.
In 2000, she was part of a leadership team that merged the sisters' two western U.S. provinces to form the Sisters of Providence Mother Joseph Province.
According to an an obituary posted by her congregation, Sr. Schamber was instrumental in the 2010 formation of the sponsorship model for the health care ministries that the sisters had founded and brought together as a system. She was one of five inaugural members of Providence Ministries, the ministerial juridic person of Providence Health & Services. Providence Health & Services merged with St. Joseph Health in 2016 to form Providence St. Joseph Health. Sr. Schamber helped to draft the "Hopes and Aspirations" sponsor document that still guides the system today.
Recently, she completed her latest five-year term as a leader of the Sisters of Providence Mother Joseph Province. That term had included work on implementing a new governance model for the province.
Sr. Schamber published a book last year called Gifts of Water & Mountains chronicling the first 150 years of the Sisters of Providence in the West.
Sr. Pruitt, who had often consulted her colleague and friend on a variety of topics, said Sr. Schamber's "steadfast presence and wise counsel will be greatly missed." She said she joins the Sisters of Providence in their grief and takes strength "from their celebration of Barbara's life, gifts and presence among us all."
Hewitt said, "The loss of Sr. Barbara is deeply felt across Providence St. Joseph, and I will especially miss her drive and determination to do what is right for Catholic health care."