Remembering Sr. Dorothy Rolf, ND (1935–2026)
72 Years of Faithful Service as a Notre Dame Sister
For Immediate Release (October 23, 2026) Omaha, NE – The Notre Dame Sisters mourn the passing of Sr. Dorothy Rolf, ND, who died October 22, 2026, at the age of 91. Throughout her 72 years of religious life, Sr. Dorothy devoted herself to being present to others. Whether teaching a classroom of young children or sitting beside a hospital patient facing an uncertain future, she understood that ministry often began with something simple: giving another person her time and attention.
Born January 25, 1935, in West Point, Nebraska, to John and Elizabeth (Drueke) Rolf, Dorothy grew up in a family where faith was part of everyday life. Her parents had both experienced significant loss at young ages, yet she remembered them as hardworking people who trusted God and rarely complained about life’s difficulties. Their example stayed with her.
Some of Dorothy’s earliest memories of prayer came not from a church pew, but from the fields and gardens of her childhood home. She recalled talking to God while driving a tractor to help her father or working in the garden alongside her mother. Even then, she was developing a relationship with God that would shape the course of her life.
That relationship deepened during her years at Notre Dame Academy in Omaha. A 1952 graduate, Dorothy loved the atmosphere of the school, particularly the daily Mass and annual retreats. Just as important were the Sisters themselves. Their example showed her what a life devoted to God could look like, and she began to recognize a similar calling within herself.
In 2024, Sr. Dorothy celebrated her 70th jubilee as a Notre Dame Sister, a milestone that offered an opportunity to reflect on the many ways her vocation had unfolded.
A Teacher Who Never Stopped Learning
Sr. Dorothy began her ministry in 1956 at Holy Trinity School in Brainerd, Nebraska, teaching kindergarten and the early elementary grades. Over the next several years, she taught at Catholic schools in Omaha, Prague and Howells, Nebraska, as well as Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
She eventually returned to Holy Trinity School as principal before moving to Aquinas High School in David City, Nebraska, where she taught from 1969 to 1979.
At Aquinas, Sr. Dorothy’s work extended beyond the classroom. She moderated the Pep Club and Student Council and founded the Soul Club, creating opportunities for students to become involved in their school community and explore their faith.
Her years in education also included serving as principal of Assumption School in Omaha and St. Mary School in Bellevue. Along the way, she accepted leadership responsibilities within the Notre Dame Sisters, including service on the community’s leadership team and work with women discerning religious life.
Although her assignments changed over the years, Sr. Dorothy’s appreciation for the people she encountered remained constant. She genuinely enjoyed working with students of all ages and valued the relationships that grew out of those experiences.
A Different Kind of Classroom
After decades in education, Sr. Dorothy’s ministry took a new direction. She pursued chaplaincy education in South Bend, Indiana, preparing for work that would call upon the same ability to connect with people, but often under very different circumstances.
She began offering spiritual direction and leading retreats for college students in Nebraska and South Dakota. In these settings, she helped young adults make space for prayer and reflect on where God might be leading them.
In 2002, Sr. Dorothy began what would become 20 years of hospital chaplaincy at Bergan, Immanuel and Methodist hospitals.
Hospital ministry brought her into people’s lives at particularly vulnerable moments. Some were facing serious illness. Others were struggling with uncertainty or loss. Her role was not to have an answer to every question, but to accompany people through whatever they were experiencing.
It was a ministry that called for patience and the ability to listen. For Sr. Dorothy, those encounters became some of the most meaningful experiences of her religious life.
Looking back on her years of service, she expressed a deep appreciation for every ministry she had been asked to undertake, particularly her work in spiritual direction and hospital chaplaincy.
She also served as an associate leader of the Notre Dame Sisters Associates from 2012 to 2022, accompanying lay people who sought to deepen their connection to the spirituality and mission of the Sisters.
Learning to Trust the Spirit
One experience from Sr. Dorothy’s years in education remained with her throughout her life.
While teaching high school, she was invited to attend a conference with three Franciscan Sisters also on staff. Although they encouraged her to accompany them, she felt a strong inner sense that she should not go. She could not fully explain the feeling, but she trusted it and decided to stay behind.
Tragically, the three Sisters were killed in an automobile accident while traveling to the conference.
The loss was devastating. In the years that followed, Sr. Dorothy reflected on the experience as a lesson in listening to God, even when she did not understand what she was being asked to do.
“God’s loving presence carried me through those sorrowful days with gratitude and taught me to listen to the movements of the Spirit in my life,” she recalled.
The experience did not diminish the sorrow of losing Sisters. Sisters. Rather, it deepened her conviction that prayer requires more than speaking to God. It also means being willing to listen.
That understanding shaped the way she approached the decisions and changes that followed throughout her life.
A Life Rooted in Gratitude
When Sr. Dorothy reflected on her years as a Notre Dame Sister, she did not focus primarily on the positions she had held or the number of people she had served. Instead, she spoke about gratitude.
She was grateful for her parents, whose example first taught her to trust God. She appreciated the Notre Dame Sisters who had encouraged her to recognize her gifts and embrace new ministries. And she valued the friendships that developed through her work.
She believed that others had helped call forth abilities she might not have recognized in herself. That belief made her particularly attentive to the importance of encouraging others along their own journeys.
When asked what advice she would offer young people, Sr. Dorothy encouraged them to pay attention to what draws them toward God. She believed that generosity toward others and time spent in prayer could help a person recognize where God was calling them.
Her advice was not complicated. It came from a lifetime of learning to listen.
For those who knew Sr. Dorothy, her legacy reaches far beyond the schools and hospitals where she served. It lives in the people who encountered her along the way, former students who remember her encouragement, individuals who found comfort in her presence, and fellow Sisters who shared the daily joys and challenges of religious life.
Sr. Dorothy’s life reminds us that service does not always require grand gestures. Sometimes it means recognizing when someone needs encouragement. Sometimes it means sitting quietly with a person who is suffering. And sometimes it means trusting that God is leading us somewhere new, even when we cannot yet see the way forward.
The Notre Dame Sisters give thanks for Sr. Dorothy’s life and the many ways she made God’s love present to others. May she now know the fullness of the peace she spent her life helping others find.
Sr. Dorothy is survived by her Notre Dame Sisters and her sister, Bonnie (Rolf) Ault of Boulder City, Nevada. She was preceded in death by her parents, John and Elizabeth (Drueke) Rolf; her sister, Geraldine (Rolf) Hagedorn of West Point, Nebraska; and her brother, Daniel Rolf of Omaha, Nebraska.
About The Notre Dame Sisters
We are a group of consecrated Catholic women dedicated to serving God, each other and our world. Through our service and ministries, we strive to meet the unmet needs of those in our community and throughout the world. As we continue to respond to the call of Christ as women of faith and prayer, we commit ourselves to building a world Christian community in joyful, loving service to others. We have served in Omaha for more than 100 years, mostly as educators, nurses, and social workers.