Sister Julie Marie Thorpe SndDen

Sister Julie Marie Thorpe SNDdeN12/04/1930 - 03/06/2026We remember with gratitude the life of Sister Julie Marie Thorpe who was a Sister of Notre Dame for 74 years. She died peacefully at Mercy Retirement and Care Center in Oakland, CA, where she was lovingly cared for during the past three years.Sister Julie Marie entered the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur in 1952 after graduating from Notre Dame High School Belmont and from San Jose State University. Julie Marie was proud of her Notre Dame connections through her great-grandmother, Sarah Donald, who was a boarder at Notre Dame San Jose in 1864.For 35 years Sister Julie Marie taught in elementary schools in Belmont, Chico, Millbrae, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Campbell, Carmel, and Lynnwood, and served as principal in three locations. Along the way, she was Formation Director and a member of the House of Prayer Retreat House in Carmel.In 1988 she began her active involvement with the Yup'ik Eskimo people on the Bering Sea Coast in Alaska. For eight years she lived among them as a Religious Ed teacher and parish minister, training deacons, providing counsel, serving in whatever ways were needed, and learning to understand the Eskimo way of life. She shared that "the Yup'ik people have an innate sense of symbolism, a moral code of conduct, and a strong sense of family. God's presence was very real in these beautiful people."When she needed to return to California in 1994 because of health issues, she began her ministry to strawberry field workers in Pajaro, CA. In 2010 she moved to the Province Center in Belmont where she served as a spiritual director and continued her outreach efforts as a volunteer, including tutoring at Nativity School in San Jose. In 2023 she moved to Mercy Care and Retirement Center in Oakland.Daughter of Winthrop and Mary Evelyn Thorpe, sister of George Thorpe and Winifred Cooper (all deceased), she is lovingly remembered by her sister-in-law Clare Thorpe, her Kevin and Gregory Thorpe, friends, former students, and Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur.A Funeral Mass will be celebrated for Sister Julie Marie at 11 am on Friday, March 20, 2026 in the Chapel at the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur Province Center, 1520 Ralston Avenue, in Belmont, California. The burial will be held at Holy Cross Cemetery at 2:30pm on March 20.Contributions in Sister Julie Marie's memory may be made to Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, 1520 Ralston Ave, Belmont, CA 94002 or online at snddeneastwest.org. To learn more about her life, go to https://snddeneastwest.org/sisters/juliemarie-thorpe/