Sr. BerchtoldA funeral Mass for Sister Mary DeMontfort Berchtold, SSND, was celebrated Sept. 20 at the School Sisters of Notre Dame Theresa Center Chapel in south St. Louis County. Sister DeMontfort died Sept. 15 at Anna House at The Sarah Community in Bridgeton. She was 95 and a former elementary school teacher and secretary.
The third child and daughter of Mary Elizabeth (Gier) and Stephen Berchtold, she was born in Alexander, Illinois, on Oct. 21, 1923. She was baptized on Oct. 28, 1923, at Visitation Church in Alexander, Illinois, and named Gertrude Frances. Gertrude entered the candidature at Sancta Maria in Ripa in St. Louis, on Oct. 15, 1943. She was received into the novitiate on July 30, 1945, and given the name, Mary DeMontfort. She professed first vows on July 31, 1946, and final vows on July 31, 1952.
For 13 years, she taught elementary children at St. Francis de Sales in St. Louis and St. Francis of Assisi in Teutopolis, Illinois. She taught high school at St. Joseph in Cairo, Illinois, for one year.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Webster College in St. Louis in 1955, and a master’s degree in higher education from Saint Louis University in 1964.
In 1960, Sister DeMontfort was appointed registrar at the former Notre Dame College in St. Louis. When the college closed in 1977, she served on the secretarial staff for 11 years at the former St. Louis Province’s vocation office and spiritual development office, which included a tape library. She served on the secretarial staff for Maria Center for five years and as a development staff member at Notre Dame High School in St. Louis, for seven years. She then volunteered in the Notre Dame High School library until her transfer to Veronica House in June 2016.
Sister DeMontfort is survived by a brother, Leo Berchtold of Rathdrum, Idaho. Burial was in the Sancta Maria in Ripa Cemetery.