Mother Mary Annette Guzowski

Sister Mary Annette Guzowski founded Villa Maria College in Buffalo, NY, in 1960, serving as its first president from 1961 to 1967.  One year prior, she led the initial Immaculate Heart of Mary Teacher-Training School. Seeing the potential in admitting lay students, Mother Annette directed the construction of a new college building on provincial grounds, and in 1964, she opened enrollment to all women. Four years later, Villa Maria College became coeducational.

During her six-year tenure as president, Mother Annette fashioned Villa Maria College into a small liberal arts school that would serve the greater Western New York area and beyond.

Earlier, she had enriched and reimagined the province’s secondary education program, Villa Maria Academy. As its principal from 1926 to 1947 she relocated the school from William Road and Kennedy Street, where it had first been established in 1901, to the new provincial house on Doat Street. Mother Annette changed the school’s name to Villa Maria Academy and opened enrollment to lay students, laying the foundation for a high school that flourished throughout the 20th century.
 
Among her other contributions, Mother Annette encouraged vocations to the Felician community, seeing a historic peak membership of 776 sisters within the Buffalo province in 1965. She also directed the completion of a healthcare facility dedicated in 1958, that was connected to the main convent by a corridor, and included numerous private rooms, a pharmacy, laboratories, and rehabilitation areas.