O'Brien John F and Sons

Raised during the Great Depression, Marguerite was 15 when her father died. The loss only strengthened the family’s commitment to each other and to their faith, and nurtured the inner strength and upbeat attitude that would underscore her entire life.Marguerite, who died June 17, at age 93, became one of the first women to graduate from Johns Hopkins University with training as a nurse anesthetist, a field previously reserved almost exclusively for men. “She was a groundbreaker in her day and all through her life,” son-in-law Edward Fay said. “She was like Rosie the Riveter. She really blazed a trail.”While at college, she met Warren Clohisy Jr., MD, who was interning at Johns Hopkins. They married in 1953 and she chose to give up a medical career to become the eventual mother of ten, a job at which she excelled. “She was always there as a mother, whatever you needed. She had an immense capacity for parenting and volunteering,” said eldest daughter Bow McGuire, who recalled in particular “her always sunny positive attitude.”The Clohisy family lived at different times both in Wilmette and Winnetka, and the children went to grade school at Saint Francis and Faith Hope, where she served as a volunteer helping students with their reading and working in the school library. When they moved on to high school at Loyola Academy and Woodlands Academy, she took on leadership positions in parent committees and fundraising. She received the Loyola Academy President’s Award. Later in life, she would also served the Catholic Theological Union.“She was always supportive of the schools and what they were trying to accomplish in any way she could be,”daughter Rooney Kerns said. Outreach to those in need was also also a priority for Marguerite and was realized by serving as a tutor, extraordinary minister, lector and hospice volunteer. For over a decade she ran Faith, Hope & Charity’s Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) program, which is for people who are interested in converting to Catholicism. “She was there for people wh...