Sister Lee Ann Amico

When Mercy Sister Lee Ann Amico’s parents learned that their daughter was going to enter the convent, she said her mother told her father, “Let her go and try this. She will probably only last 15 minutes.” This year Sister Lee Ann is celebrating her 60th jubilee as a Mercy Sister, and during the past six decades has accomplished much more than even she could have imagined.

The only child of Gaetano and Madeline Welch Amico, Sister Lee Ann was born and raised in Trenton. She first became interested in religious life at St. James Elementary School, Trenton, which was staffed by the Religious Teachers Filippini. As a student at Cathedral High School, Trenton, she came to know the Sisters of Mercy and was inspired by their willingness to help others.

The Sisters of Mercy’s down-to-earth natures also attracted Sister Lee Ann to the order. “I saw them as real people. They laughed. They were serious, but they could joke with you. They had a human touch, a humanness,” she said.

In 1961, the year she graduated from Cathedral High, Sister Lee Ann joined the Mercy community, and began teaching in elementary schools including St. James, Red Bank; St. Ann, Keansburg; St. Mary, Camden; and Cathedral, Trenton.

Sister Lee Ann professed her final vows as a Mercy Sister in 1970. The same year she received a bachelor’s degree from Georgian Court University, Lakewood, where she was awarded a master’s degree in 1976. From the state of New Jersey, she earned certifications in elementary education and principal, supervisor.

From 1985 to 1986, Sister Lee Ann served as assistant superintendent of schools in the Archdiocese of Newark. She then taught history and sociology at the Mount and was in charge of the Student Council.

Well respected and loved by the students, in 1989 Sister Lee Ann was named “Teacher of the Year.” She recalled what an honor it was to receive the recognition since the students selected the teacher to be honored.   

Sister Lee Ann’s longest and one of her most challenging ministries began in 1996 when she was asked to become director of the McAuley School for Exceptional Children when it was relocated from the Mount campus in Watchung to North Plainfield. Although she had never worked with the cognitively impaired, she said in one interview “to my delight and surprise, I fell in love with it. The children taught me to be true, simple and direct — to be myself.”

When the McAuley school closed in 2013, Sister Lee Ann returned to serve once again at the Mount, this time as director of Student Government and Student Center manager, positions she still holds.   

One of Sister Lee Ann’s tasks as Student Center Manager is to maintain one of two bulletin boards in the center. When she first saw the bulletin board, she said she felt it needed a good elementary school teacher to make it better. “I taught at a time when bulletin boards were important,” she explained. On the Mount’s bulletin board, she posts quotes and sayings designed to generate thinking. She changes it each month. On Dec. 4, 2020, Sister Lee Ann’s bulletin board read: “2020 Thank you for all the lessons. 2021 we are ready.” The students loved the saying and on Facebook above a photo of the bulletin board it read in part, “Thank you for always inspiring us Sister Lee Ann.”

Reflecting on her 60th jubilee, Sister Lee Ann said, “I think the most rewarding part as a religious has been the relationships that I have made with the people to whom I have ministered. It’s the interfacing with the people of God.”

As for the future, Sister Lee Ann asserted, “At this point I have enough energy to do what I am doing and God has blessed me with the health to do what I am doing, so I’ll keep doing it ’til I can’t.”

Joanne Ward