Born in San Francisco, California, Jean Dolores Schmidt is better known as Sister Jean. After a lifetime of serving in the education field, Sister Jean came to Loyola University in 1991. She gained a large following after being highlighted during a Loyola men's basketball NCAA tourney game in 2018. Sister Jean passed away in October 2025 at the age of 106.
On what would have been her 107th birthday, Loyola unveiled a slightly larger than life-size, cast bronze statue of Sister Jean is seated on a bench on the West Quad of Loyola’s Lake Shore Campus. Naturally, she is holding a basketball.
Sister Jean and me in Chicago, IL-October 2026.
