Florence M. McBrien
Florence M. McBrien, a wife, mother, and educator, died on June 25, 2018 in her Grosse Pointe Shores home. Mrs. McBrien was born in Detroit on May 19, 1930, to Tufick and Jamal Moroun. She graduated from St. Marys Academy in Monroe, a school operated by the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. She credited her lifelong love of learning as well as her strong Catholic faith to the influence of the IHM Sisters, a teaching order that also founded Marygrove College in Detroit, where Mrs. McBrien earned a degree in English literature and a teaching certificate from the colleges elementary education program. During her first year of teaching at the Guyton School in Detroit, she met her husband-to-be, Richard C. McBrien, a fellow teacher. They were married for 53 years and raised five children. Mr. McBrien died in January 2011. Mrs. McBrien was a student of literature and history and was a talented writer who fostered the love of reading in her family, said her daughter Marcia McBrien. The home my parents made for us was full of poetry, music, art, hundreds of books, and dogs. If you came to our house, you could expect to hear my parents old stereo playing, anything f...[more]View Full Online Obituary and Tributes
grand opera to Andrew Lloyd Webber. At any given moment, there was always at least one child, and usually two, practicing a musical instrument, and the rest of us reading or cluttering the house with our various hobbies, which must have been a pain in the neck for our parents, but they didnt complain. Mom and Dad encouraged our interests even when it meant more work for them and a messy house. Mrs. McBrien believed that her greatest calling was to be a mother. I cant think of a more important job than to nurture and prepare a child for life, she often said. But she also sought to share her love of learning and reading beyond her own family. For many years, Mrs. McBrien was a volunteer instructor in the Junior Great Books program, an outgrowth of the Great Books program founded by two University of Chicago educators, Robert Maynard Hutchins and Mortimer Adler. Using the programs shared inquiry method, Mrs. McBrien guided hundreds of middle school students in interpreting and discussing classics of the Western canon as well as contemporary works. A longtime member of the Detroit Book Club, Mrs. McBrien was also active in the Grand Marais chapter of The Questers. In her final years, through a gift to the University of Notre Dames Hesburgh Libraries, Mrs. McBrien sought to preserve rare texts for study and research, said Diane Parr Walker, Edward H. Arnold University Librarian. "The Hesburgh Libraries at the University of Notre Dame were honored by Florence's decision to honor the memory of her husband and son by establishing the Florence and Richard McBrien and Richard C. McBrien, Jr. Special Collections Librarian endowed position. Their legacy forever helps us strengthen the mission of the Hesburgh Libraries through the purchase of rare materials and programming to enhance their visibility and research use, Ms. Parr Walker said. Mr. and Mrs. McBrien were also strong supporters of the Mayo Clinic, where they were recognized as principal benefactors for their contributions to the Clinics Chaplaincy Services, Music at the Bedside program, and the Poverello Foundation, a fund for low-income patients medical treatment. Mrs. McBrien loved her friends, including college classmates from Marygrove, and greatly enjoyed being a member of the Witty Wives, an informal group of wives and widows of members of the Witenagemote, a Detroit-area mens society. She also loved Colonial Road, where she raised her family and lived to the end of her life, having been named Queen of Colonial Road, by her neighbors. Mrs. McBrien was a board member of the Young Womens Home Association and a trustee of the Michigan Opera Theatre. In addition to her daughter Marcia, an attorney, Mrs. McBrien is survived by daughters Melissa McBrien, M.D. (Raymond Landes, M.D.), Victoria McBrien, Dianne McBrien, M.D. (Robert Bacon). and granddaughters Victoria Landes, Caroline Landes, and Catherine McBrien. Mrs. McBrien was predeceased by a son, Richard Jr., an attorney, in 2003. Friends may call on Friday, June 29 from 1 to 7 p.m. at the Verheyden Funeral Home, 16300 Mack Avenue, Grosse Pointe Park; there will be a Rosary at 6 p.m. The funeral will take place on Saturday, June 30 at 10 a.m. at St. Paul on the Lake Catholic Church, 157 Lakeshore Drive, Grosse Pointe Farms. The family suggests memorial donations to one of the following: Discalced Carmelites Fund, 3575 Moravian Drive, Clinton Township, MI 48035 Loyola High School Detroit, 15325 Pinehurst, Detroit, MI 48238 Mayo Clinic, attn. Kim Spear, Siebens 9, 200 First Street SW, Rochester, MN 55905 (please designate Chaplaincy Services - Florence McBrien in memo line) St. Paul School Development Fund, 157 Lake Shore Drive, Grosse Pointe Farms, MI 48236 University of Notre Dame, 110 Grace Hall, Notre Dame, IN 46556 (please designate McBrien Special Collections Librarian in memo line) Light a candle and share a memory at www.verheyden.org.
