The USF community mourns Sr. M. Theresa Moser, RSCJ, who died early Friday morning, Feb. 9. She was 87.
Sr. Theresa Moser was a member of the Religious of the Sacred Heart (RSCJ) for 58 years. She was originally from Dallas, Texas. After teaching as a faculty member at John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio, and Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California, she moved to the University of San Francisco.
Sr. Moser or Sr. T (as she was fondly called by those who knew her well), was assistant dean for academic programs in the College of Arts and Sciences. She started as acting coordinator of graduate programs in pastoral studies. Her role within the college evolved to include a number of diverse responsibilities that only Sr. T could fulfill (curricular issues, faculty immigration, staff hiring, and many more). She retired in 2013 after 23 years (as she explained to Marcelo Camperi, the dean of the college then, "religious people never retire, but move on to other things"). Most recently, she served as parish office administrator at St. Ignatius Parish until 2018 when she was asked to be a part of the provincial leadership team of the Society of the Sacred Heart.
Sr. Moser was president of the College Theology Society (CTS), a national professional association, and served for 10 years as secretary of the Catholic Theological Society of America. She was a member of the Boards of Schools of the Sacred Heart in San Francisco and Forest Ridge School of the Sacred Heart in Bellevue, Washington. Most recently, she was a member of the University of San Diego Board of Trustees.
She earned a bachelor’s degree from Maryville College of the Sacred Heart in St. Louis; a master’s from Saint Louis University; and a doctorate in religion and society from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. She also earned a licentiate in sacred theology from the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, part of Santa Clara University.
She was a longtime member of our university community, St. Ignatius Parish, and a wonderful presence in the lives of many. May she rest in peace. Our thoughts and prayers go out to her friends, family, and her RSCJ community.
A funeral mass celebrating the life of Sr. Theresa Moser, RSCJ, will be celebrated on Thursday, March 7 at 2 p.m. in St. Ignatius Church. A reception will follow in Fromm Hall.