Hon. Mary Beatty Muse ’50 was perpetually in the vanguard. She was one of the first women to graduate from Boston College Law School and the only one to have four of her eleven children while a student at BC Law. She was among the first class of Navy WAVES, serving as an intelligence and communications officer during WWII. And, in 1982, at the age of sixty-three, she was appointed a justice of the Suffolk County Probate and Family Court bench. Judge Muse passed away February 20 at the age of ninety-five.
“My mother just loved BC Law,” said her son Christopher Muse. “I remember that since I was a kid she was always doing something with or for BC Law. I teach at the Law School, and it gives me such joy to be there and think about the impact she had.”
Judge Muse served on many judicial, Catholic, educational, and charitable boards and committees during her lifetime and was honored numerous times, including by her undergraduate alma mater, Emmanuel College.
The Muse legacy at Boston College is a long one. Among the many connections, Judge Muse grew up in the house that is now the rectory for the St. Ignatius Church on the BC Campus. During WWII, she met Marine fighter pilot Robert Francis Muse, a BC undergrad. He went to Suffolk Law, she to BC Law on the GI Bill. Her daughter Patricia Muse and granddaughter Julie Muse-Fisher are BC Law alumni, and another granddaughter, Rita Claire, is currently a 3L.
In 2003, on the occasion of her receiving Boston College Law School’s Lifetime Achievement Award, US Senator Bill Frist entered a tribute to Judge Muse in the Congressional Record.
A funeral Mass will be held in St. Ignatius Church, 28 Commonwealth Ave., in Chestnut Hill on Feb. 28 at 12 p.m. Visiting hours are Feb. 27 at the Fenway Room in the Administration Building at Emmanuel College, 400 The Fenway, Boston, from 4-8 p.m.
Photo at top, Hon. Mary Beatty Muse ’50 with her daughter Patricia Muse ’90, left, and granddaughter Julie Muse-Fisher ’05.