Sister Marie Schramko, a founding principal of Cardinal Gibbons High School in Fort Lauderdale and a fixture on its campus and at its sporting events for more than a half-century, died Sunday. She was 102.
Schramko already had been teaching for 23 years when she arrived at the school in 1961, to a campus that she said was nothing more than “the beginnings of two buildings. We had to borrow chairs. We had to borrow tables.”
The Roman Catholic school has since grown into a campus of about 10 buildings with a 1,200-student enrollment.
Schramko served as principal of the girls division and became assistant principal when the school became co-ed in 1972. She remained an assistant principal until her retirement in 2015, when she was 98.
Cardinal Gibbons Principal Paul Ott described her as “the cornerstone of almost everything that has been accomplished here over the past 59 years.”
She saw more than 12,000 students come through and graduate from the school. If there was a home game on campus, she was there — usually from her preferred vantage point atop the bleachers — and she often made it to away games as well, showing the students her support.
“She had such pride in seeing everybody out there. It was like all of her children were out there playing,” said Louise Crocco, who spent 40 years at the school after being a student there, teaching physical education, coaching the girls volleyball team and serving as the school’s athletic director.
“Anything that had to do with Gibbons, made her so proud. This was her baby,” Crocco said. “It almost feels like I lost my mother again.”
Schramko pitched in to help beyond her administrative duties, going back to school for required certification when a teaching need emerged in certain subjects.
Over the years, she taught Latin, math and science. Among her students were former Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jack Seiler and former police chief and city commissioner, Bruce Roberts.
“It didn’t matter who you are, what family you came from, she took genuine concern for every student,” Seiler said. “How does a nun who has a thousand kids to worry about seem to find time for each and every one?”
Seiler said she didn’t forget her former students when she retired, still keeping in touch with many with written notes up until the day she died.
“Her handwriting was perfect,” he said. “She had the ability to write the most beautiful notes, not only in terms of the handwriting, but in terms of the content.”
Schramko hand-addressed the school’s annual Christmas cards — even after retiring to Illinois — up until she was 100, said Charn Romanelli, a friend of Schramko’s who graduated from Cardinal Gibbons, taught home economics there and sent three daughters to the school.
“Her handwriting looked exactly as it did 50 years prior,” Romanelli said. She said she noticed immediately when last year’s cards came with printed addresses, not with Schramko’s perfect penmanship. She said Schramko had a real love for the school, its students and their families.
“Once she became your friend, she was always your friend,” Romanelli said. “She was very astute in treating people the same way.”
Schramko and Sister Janet Rieden were the last two nuns still at the school when they retired together.
“There was never a day when there wasn’t a challenge,” Schramko said upon retirement, reflecting on her early years at the school. “If we needed something, we created it immediately, on the job. It was the beginnings of South Florida.”
Schramko was born in Johnstown, Penn., one of five children of Julia and Frank Schramko. She entered the Sisters of St. Francis of Mary Immaculate in Joliet, Ill., in 1934.
She received her undergraduate degree from the College of St. Francis in Joliet and a master’s degree from DePaul University in Chicago. She later earned a master’s degree in administration and counseling from Florida Atlantic University. Before arriving at Cardinal Gibbons, she taught at high schools in Illinois and Ohio.
After retiring, she lived at the Our Lady of Angels Retirement Home in Joliet, where she died.
A funeral Mass will be celebrated May 13 in Joliet. A memorial Mass will be held in Fort Lauderdale at 7 p.m. May 16 at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, 4595 Bayview Drive.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to a memorial fund set up to honor her to Cardinal Gibbons High School, 2900 NE 47th St., Fort Lauderdale, FL, 33308.
lbarszewski@SunSentinel.com, 954-356-4556 or Twitter @lbarszewski