S. Gonzaga Plantenberg (1913-1996) Faculty in Chemistry, Physics and Math
Sister Gonzaga (Philomene) Plantenberg was born in Cold Spring, MN, on June 8, 1913 to John and Barbara (Knaus). She chose her name after her father’s cousin Gonzaga Kevenhoester who was part of the community and taught science and died in 1902. She graduated from Cathedral High School in 1931 and began her college education at the College of Saint Benedict. While in her third year of college, she entered St. Benedict's Monastery in 1933.
By 1939, she received her B.A. in chemistry at the College of St. Benedict and taught science and business courses in high schools in Mauston and Eau Claire, WI, and at St. Benedict's. She had a change in course with her degree, knowing the needs of the community and the retirement of S. Magna Werth, and was asked to switch to physics even though she did not want to. In 1945, she obtained her M.S. degree in physics from St. Louis University. After completing her M.S. a letter from the Dean of the Graduate school noted that her work in physics was the best job by any woman student in the last 15 years in physics, offering her to stay on to complete her doctorate and she continued there to receive her Ph.D. in physics in 1948. Her dissertation was titled “The Vapor Pressure of Bismuth between 583 and 828 Degree Centigrade by a Direct Method.“ It was also noted that there were not many students at the college at this point, mainly clergy, a few part-time sisters, and men who did not pass the physical to go to war.
For the next twenty years, she taught physics, chemistry, and mathematics at the College of Saint Benedict. She was one of the first full-time faculty to teach at St. John’s University under the cooperative, teaching physics and thermodynamics. She continued to update her study and research in summer programs sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the Atomic Energy Commission. For two years, she served as the College's Dean of Women.
In 1968, Sister Gonzaga became one of the founding members of St. Benedict's mission at St. Anselm College, Manchester, NH, where she taught physics for 25 years and conducted seminars in the Humanities Program. The college was transitioning to co-educational at this point, other than nursing students and daughters of faculty members, the school was previously for males. Sister Gonzi, as she was known, retired in 1988, she assisted in the St. Anselm Volunteer Program and volunteered at the Birthright and Senior Meals Program in Manchester. Due to failing health, she returned to Minnesota in 1993 and resided at St. Scholastica Convent until she died in 1996. Sister Gonzaga was famous for promoting celebrations of her birthday, a dry sense of humor, and card playing, always carrying a deck, ready for a game. For as meticulous as she was as a scientist, she was not in the kitchen often, she did not follow recipes making 10-12 loaves of bread instead of 1-2.
