A lifelong educator animated by faith and the pursuit of social justice, Sister Cecile Therese Burton left an indelible imprint during more than four decades of service in Hawaii.

Burton died Feb. 17 in Maryknoll, N.Y. She was 91.

Born Frances Eloise in Washington, D.C., Burton spent much of her young adult life in Pennsylvania, where she graduated from Little Flower Catholic High School and earned a bachelor’s degree in French and a teaching certificate from Immaculata College.

In 1945, Burton entered the Maryknoll Sisters Congregation from St. Martin of Tours Parish in Philadelphia and received the religious name Sister M. Cecile Therese. She made her first Profession of Vows in 1948 at Maryknoll and her Final Vows in 1951, also at Maryknoll. She taught for a year at St. Anthony’s School in the Bronx before being assigned to Hawaii in 1949.

Burton served various missions in Hawaii as an elementary and junior high school teacher, religious education coordinator and parish pastoral worker. She also taught English as a second language.

Burton studied in France in 1965 as a Fulbright scholar, obtaining a Cert.D’Assiduite. In 1979, she attended a course in Clinical Pastoral Education at Central Islip, N.Y.

Committed to addressing social ills, Burton joined the Peace Education Program and taught nonviolence to children. She was also a member of the Peace and Justice Committee of the Maryknoll Sisters in Hawaii.

A strong advocate for women’s rights, Burton established the Walking With Women project and worked closely with women who lived in prisons and shelters. She also devoted much time to working with senior day care programs and a shelter for abused women and children.

In 1999, Burton moved to the Maryknoll Sisters residence in Monrovia, Calif., where she helped in an adult literacy program, taught piano and mentored at a local middle school. She returned to the Maryknoll Sisters Center at Maryknoll, N.Y., in 2006.

A Vespers service will be held at 4:15 p.m. Monday in the Main Chapel at Maryknoll Sisters Center. A funeral Mass will follow at 11 a.m. Tuesday also in the Main Chapel at the center. Burial will follow in the Maryknoll Sisters Cemetery on the center grounds.