Sister Mary Gabriel, MBE.
Barron, Sister Mary Gabriel Muriel Marie MBE 1975 for services to pharmacy. FPS (NZ) 1970 for distinction in practice and profession of pharmacy. Born Waihi 21 June 1904, daughter of George and Margaret Barron. Died Auckland 29 February 1988. Educated Waihi High School; Waihi School of Mines. Apprentice in pharmacy to father, qualified pharmacist in Waihi; MPS 1925. LTCL 1929. Joined Auckland Sisters of Mercy 1929 and made religious vows 1932. Teacher of music at Otahuhu Convent 1933-37. Established pharmacy at Mater Misericordiae (now Mercy) Hospital 1937. Foundation Member NZ Hospital Pharmacist's Assn and of Auckland Branch of Pharmaceutical Society. Among first group of pharmacists in NZ to be made a Fellow of the Pharmaceutical Society and first woman Fellow of Society in New Zealand. Pharmacist in Chief Mater Hospital 1937-75.
Born Muriel Barron in 1904, Sister Mary Gabriel was known nationwide for her extraordinary gifts in things intellectual and spiritual.

Her Waihi childhood provided the basis of a life-time fascination with pharmacy. Her father George began the family chemist business, Barron's, in Seddon Street. While at Waihi High (now Waihi College), Sister Mary Gabriel began an apprenticeship at the store.

During this time she studied at the Waihi School of Mines, and after two years qualified MPS (Member of the Pharmaceutical Society), one of the first New Zealanders to do so.

Aged 23 she entered the Order of the Sisters of Mercy. After being fully professed as a nun she taught music for four years and then began on perhaps her most notable work.

Sister Mary Gabriel established the pharmacy at the Mater (now Mercy) Hospital in Auckland in 1937, and ran it as a pharmacist until 1975.

The Sisters of Mercy held Sister Mary Gabriel in very high regard.

Her obituary, printed by the Sisters, makes that plain.
'Sister Mary Gabriel carried her intellectual gifts lightly and used them to share with people. She had a warm welcoming personality abd a great conversational gift which enabled all those who called on her to feel at home.'

Her interests were extensive, she made exquisite embroidery and crochet, cultivated African violets and made soft toy animals which soon became sought after throughout the country.

Sister Mary Gabriel died in 1988 aged 84 years.
above: Sister Mary Gabriel and her brother.