A Mass of Christian Burial for Dominican Sister Thoma Maynard was celebrated May 6 at St. Catherine Chapel in the Dominican Life Center in Adrian, Mich. She died on May 2 at the age of 97.

Sister Thoma served as a Dominican sister for 72 years. She was born in San Francisco and graduated from Adrian High School in Michigan. She earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and science from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and a master’s degree in plant physiology from the Institutum Divi Thomae in Cincinnati. 

For 29 years, Sister Thoma ministered as a secondary education teacher in Chicago, the Dominican Republic, Detroit, Miami Shores, Fla., and Oakland, Calif. She was also a professor at Barry College in Florida. 

Sister Thoma conducted cancer research at St. Thomas Institute in Cincinnati for five years in the 1970s. She was also a research associate for four years at Xavier University. 

She went on to volunteer at the Dominican Santa Cruz Hospital in Santa Cruz, Calif., Maria Health Care Center and Hospice of Lenawee County in Adrian. Sister Thoma became a resident at the Dominican Life Center in Adrian in 1996. 

Burial was in the congregation’s cemetery.