She was born October 7, 1934, in Tiffin, to Lloyd and Leona (Christophory) Koerper.
Surviving are two sisters, Ruth Wank of Tiffin, and Marjorie Wasserman of Fremont, Ohio.
She was preceded in death by her parents, her sister, Rose Collier; and two brothers, Bernard and Eugene Koerper.
Sister Beatrice earned a M.A. in Religious Education from Fordham University. She was an elementary school teacher at Carey, Edgerton, Fort Jennings, Bucyrus, Millersville, Payne, and Peru. She was Director of Religious Education at Ottawa and Lima, and she was the Directress of novices and postulants, and community councilor for the congregation. She also served as a pastoral associate at Morganfield, Kentucky. She lived as a contemplative and spiritual guide at St. Mary of the Angels hermitage in Morganfield, Kentucky before returning to the motherhouse in 2003. Sister Beatrice continued serving others as a contemplative/spiritual guide until the time of her most recent illness and death.
Sister Beatrice spent much time reading, studying the mystical classics, praying, and providing spiritual direction for many people. When she left western Kentucky the people said “the greatest lesson Sr. Bea left us is that the seed of prayer and living in God’s presence grows not only in the hills of Assisi and the knobs of Nelson County, it grows also in the hills of Union County, Kentucky. The seed of prayer and silence, if it is tended and watered can grow anywhere.”
Sister Beatrice completed the plans for her Wake and Funeral on October 23, 2005. At that time she wrote “Finally I have this completed. I hope God doesn’t make me wait forever.” God didn’t; she was taken home about six years later. Sister Beatrice will be missed by her sisters in community, her family and her many friends.
Visitation will be Wednesday, December 28, 2011 from 11am to1 pm in St. Francis Home Chapel, 182 St. Francis Ave., Tiffin, and from 2 to 7 p.m. Wednesday, with a Christian Wake Service at 7 pm, in St. Francis Convent Chapel, 200 St. Francis Ave., Tiffin.
Visitation will also be 9:30 to 10:30 am Thursday, December 29, with Funeral Mass at 10:30 am in St. Francis Convent Chapel. Rev. James Peiffer will officiate, with burial following in St. Francis Convent Cemetery. Luncheon will follow in the Canticle Café, the convent dining room.
Memorials can be made to St. Francis Convent or St. Francis Home.