The former Dorothy Budnik, was born Feb. 19, 1920, in Bay City, the third of seven children of Casimir and Anna (Wagner) Budnik. She was baptized at St. Stanislaus Church, Bay City. She entered the Congregation of the Felician Sisters, was invested with the habit in 1940 and received the religious name, Sr. Mary Gerald. She made her first profession of vows the following year, and six years later, on Aug. 15, 1947, professed perpetual vows in the congregation.
Sr. Budnik earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Mary Manse College and taught in parochial schools for 62 years, including St. Hyacinth, St. Andrew, St. Josephat, St. Louis the King, Corpus Christi, Immaculate Conception and Our Lady Help of Christians, all in Detroit; Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, Wyandotte; St. Mary, Parisville (Ruth); Holy Rosary, Saginaw; St. Valentine, Kawkawlin (Beaver); St. Therese, Wayland; Manistee Catholic Central; and Holy Family, Ontonagon.
Graced with an ability for sculpting from an early age, Sr. Budnik utilized this God-given talent for His honor and glory and for the edification of those whose lives she touched.
On Jan. 28, 2006, she was inducted into the Manistee Catholic Central High School Hall of Fame. Her four-foot figure of St. Francis cast in bronze stands in front of the school.
Relief plaques in wood and marble, crucifixes and Stations of the Cross from aspen, walnut and cedar grace the halls of Presentation Convent in Livonia, Maryville Retreat Center in Holly, Madonna University, Ladywood High School, and the Felician Generalate in Rome.
Sr. Budnik is survived by two brothers, Ted and Paul.
A funeral Mass was celebrated last Saturday,Oct. 26, in Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Chapel in the Felician Sisters Central Convent, Livonia. Burial was in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, Southfield
