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January 10, 2025, Providence, Rhode Island – After nearly 40 years of ministry at Providence College and 50 years living in Rode Island, Sister Gail Himrod, OP, received a special gift to remind her of the long-time connection as she was preparing to move to the Adrian Dominican Sisters Motherhouse in Adrian, Michigan. 

Sister Gail was presented with the Laudare Medal as a sign of gratitude for her years of ministry at Providence. Father Joseph Guido, OP, Prior of the U.S. Eastern Province of Dominican Friars, made the presentation at the conclusion of Vespers in the chapel of St. Thomas Aquinas Priory. The friars founded Providence College in 1917.

“I was very surprised and overwhelmed,” Sister Gail recalled. Sister Gail holds a bachelor’s degree in music and English from Siena Heights College (now University) in Adrian, a master’s degree in music history and musicology from the University of Michigan, and a doctorate in music education and music history from Boston University.

While taking a semester of courses at Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., Sister Gail often went to the Dominican House of Studies for liturgy and to use its library. While there, she met a Dominican Friar from Providence College and told him about her newly completed master’s degree. “He told me they were trying to start a music major at Providence,” Sister Gail recalled. “He asked if I was interested, and I was because I wasn’t doing anything with my degree.” In November, the friar asked her to submit her resumé. 

Sister Gail began her ministry at Providence College in the 1974-1975 academic year. By that time, she said, Providence was offering music courses but still needed to develop the degree program – a project in which she became heavily engaged. Tasks included studying music programs at nearby colleges, writing materials, and created proposals presented to the Committee on Studies.

“There were specific history and theory courses outlined for a music major,” Sister Gail recalled. Students needed to take the courses and private lessons for their instrument to be declared a music major. 

Sister Gail also led the Music Department’s efforts to gain accreditation through the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM). “The initial accreditation inquiry began with my attending the yearly national meetings in order to determine whether we were ready for this step,” she recalled. She directed the department’s self-study and drew up the required documentation. After the NASM visiting team’s report and Providence’s response, the college was accredited to offer music major, Sister Gail said. 

In her ministry at Providence College, Sister Gail taught courses including History of the Middle Ages, Music in the Classical Era, Women and Music, Music and Society, and Music Appreciation. She also chaired the Music Department at various times and served on the Faculty Senate. Her committee work included the Diamond Jubilee Committee, preparing for the celebration of Providence’s 75th anniversary, and the Centennial Committee, planning for the college’s 100th anniversary in 2017.

Sister Gail also played the organ for nearby parishes. For about five years, she served as assistant organist for the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul, often substituting for Dr. Alexander Peloquin (1918-1997), the Cathedral organist and Director of Music Ministries, as well as a noted composer, director of the Peloquin Chorale, and composer-in-Residence at Boston College. Sister Gail has been gathering material for a biography she hopes to write of Dr. Peloquin.

While she served the college in a variety of ways, Sister Gail has also placed much focus on the students themselves and is pleased with the lives of many of her students after graduation. “You hope they will become proficient in whatever areas they were involved in,” she said. Her former students have not disappointed her. Many are music educators in public elementary and high schools and some became private teachers for instruments or voice, conductors, and performers.   

Sister Gail’s identity as a Dominican Sister was also key at Providence College, a Catholic and Dominican school. Her work at the college and her mission as an Adrian Dominican Sister have never been separate, she said. A major part of her ministry was her Dominican presence. “Whether it be in a classroom or walking around campus or something else,” the presence was always important, she said. “I was a Dominican – not just Gail Himrod but I was Sister Gail Himrod. I was a Dominican Sister working alongside the Dominican men and women.”

January 8, 2025, Adrian, Michigan – The General Council of the Adrian Dominican Sisters wrote to President Joe Biden, praising him for commuting the sentences of 37 men on Federal Death Row to life in prison without the possibility of parole, and further encouraged him in his last days of office to commute the sentence of the remaining three men on Federal Death Row and four men on Military Death Row. The letter reads as follows.

January 8, 2025

President Joe Biden
The White House 
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, D.C. 20500 

Dear Mr. President,

As you prepare for your visit on Friday with Pope Francis, we write on behalf of the Adrian Dominican Sisters to extend our deep gratitude to you for your principled decision to commute the sentences of 37 men on federal death row to life in prison without possibility of parole. As Catholic women of faith who believe in the inherent dignity of all human beings and the sacred value of life, we have long opposed the death penalty. 

We ask that in your final days in office, you extend that commutation to the remaining three men on federal death row and the four men on military death row. We believe that heinous acts of violence must be addressed resolutely by our system of justice – not by acts of violence that debase our nation and burden individual civil servants with carrying out executions.

We ask that you bring a decisive end to the practice of capital punishment in your term as President. We pray that this moral act will be a prelude to our nation’s return to the league of nations, a majority in the world, that have abolished state executions.

Sincerely,

Sisters Elise D. García, OP, Prioress; Bibiana “Bless” Colasito, OP, and Frances Nadolny, OP, General Councilors; Lorraine Réaume, OP, Vicaress and General Councilor; and Corinne Sanders, OP, General Councilor.

General Council of the Adrian Dominican Sisters