Friends, Covenant co-workers recall life, work of Sister Meg
BETH AARON
AVALANCHE-JOURNAL
 

Sister Margaret Mary Kopish, the vice president of mission services at Covenant Health System who was known as a woman who "devoted her life to loving people," died July 29 of ovarian cancer. She was 59.

Friends and co-workers close to Kopish, better known as Sister Meg, said her work and kind personality touched many lives.

"Sister Meg had devoted her life to loving people. She was a very kind and an extremely intelligent woman," said Karen Moore, nurse manager of the children's emergency department at Covenant Children's Hospital.

Dr. Kathy Ronaghan, Kopish's co-worker and friend, said adjusting to life without Kopish has been difficult.

"There is a tremendous sadness from the bottom up," Ronaghan said of Covenant since the loss of Kopish. She added Covenant would never be the same.

Kopish was born on Nov. 24, 1947, in Fort Dodge, Iowa.

At the beginning of her freshman year of high school, Kopish experienced a calling into religious vocation with the Adorers of the Blood of Christ and entered the order as an aspirant.

Before becoming involved in health care, Kopish taught in various places around the country. She had a master's degree in ministry and doctorate in theology.

At one time, she served on the General Council in the Vatican.

"She's pretty much done it all," Ronaghan said.

In October 1992, Kopish was in Liberia in the middle of a civil war. Five of the sisters in her order were assassinated. Kopish testified before Congress on the conditions in Liberia and the civil war and represented her five sisters in a meeting with Pope John Paul II.

The pope gave Kopish a special blessing and declared the five sisters martyrs.

Up to the point of her death, Kopish worked toward the beatification of the sisters who died in Liberia, Ronaghan said.

In early 2005, Kopish came to Covenant, where she oversaw the mission and mentor program, which is teaching the lay community about the health-care ministry.

"She was a spit fire - that red hair really fit her," Moore said. "She stood up for the vulnerable and those who needed help, and she was just such a great, great asset to our organization."

Ronaghan said Kopish was heavily involved with the community services organization within Covenant and served on the Catholic Family Services board.

"She would absolutely do anything to help," Ronaghan said. "She had a tremendous presence when she was in the room and a tremendous kindness. She had a very keen sense of right and wrong and a very, very, very remarkable ability to immediately identify good and evil."