Celebrating the Life of Sister Susan Frazer, RSM

Our Mercy Education family mourns the passing of Sister Susan Frazer, RSM, who died on July 24, 2026. After first arriving in Jamaica in 1971, she devoted herself to accompanying and educating young people, serving in leadership roles at St. John Bosco Boys’ Home, Alpha Girls’ School, Alpha Boys’ School, the Alpha Vocational Training Centre, and the Alpha School of Music. She was also a former Area Administrator of the Sisters of Mercy of Jamaica. Through her faith, vision and commitment to education, Sister Susan mentored and inspired generations of young Jamaicans.

We invite you to read this brief biography of Sister Susan, kindly shared with us by the Sisters of Mercy of Jamaica:

Sister Susan Frazer, RSM

Born in Hancock, Michigan in 1948, Susan Frazer was first introduced to the Sisters of Mercy while attending McAuley High (a Mercy-owned high school) in Cincinnati, Ohio during her youth. There, she saw firsthand what meaningful lives of service the sisters lived and was inspired to enter the Sisters of Mercy’s religious community in 1966 upon her graduation. While there, she continued her education (earning an undergraduate social sciences from Edgecliff College), and was advised by a spiritual mentor to enter into a new place or circumstance that was completely unfamiliar to her in order to discern what her specific calling was. It is this advice that led her to the island of Jamaica in 1971. In Kingston, Jamaica, she served at the Alpha Girls’ School followed by the Alpha Boys’ School, before returning to the United States where she made her final vows and worked as a social worker in a Cincinnati hospital ministry.

Despite this, Sister Susan still felt a call to serve in Jamaica – a place which had become a home to her. In 1977, she returned to the island and began working at St. John Bosco Boys’ Home, where she became a much beloved mother figure to hundreds of boys in state-care. Using her knack for enterprise and innovation, Sister Susan led the charge, alongside Sister Sister Noreen, in developing new trade programmes and multiple on-campus businesses which made the school more financially sustainable and which still exist today. Due to her remarkable leadership and commitment to developing young Jamaicans, Sister Susan was, over the years, appointed as the Executive Director of the St. John Bosco Boys’ Home, Alpha Girls’ School, and Alpha Boys’ School. In recent years, after decades of nurturing and educating children and youth, Sister made the decision to transition the residential programmes at Alpha Boys’ School and St. John Bosco into skills training day programmes. In 2016, Sister Susan became the Area Administrator of the Sisters of Mercy of Jamaica – a role which she performed with the utmost dedication and grace. Throughout her life, Sister Susan Frazer used her work ethic, humour, warmth, and faith in God to make an indelible mark on Jamaica.