Sister Diane (Malia) Rapozo, of Lihue, Kauai, will celebrate 50 years as a Sister of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (BVM) on June 17 at her community’s Mount Carmel Motherhouse Chapel in Dubuque, Iowa.

She is among 17 BVM sisters marking their golden jubilees this year.

The daughter of Joseph F.H. Rapozo and Eva Ebinger Rapozo, Diane attended St. Catherine Grade School in Kapaa which was staffed at the time by BVM Sisters. Graduating in 1954, she enrolled at St. Francis Convent School in Honolulu. After her high school graduation in 1958 she entered the BVM convent in Dubuque on Aug. 2.

She received her degree from BVM Mundelein College in Chicago and served in Chicago for 16 years as a Catholic school teacher and a religious educator for the archdiocese and a Chicago parish.

After Chicago, Sister Diane moved to Wausau, Wis., to continue parish religious education work with adults and children.

In 1985, Sister Diane received her certification as a clinical pastoral care minister and served the sick and elderly of her BVM community for eight years. She has also been a regional representative for the BVM congregation, serving seven years in a leadership role.

Today she is a pastoral care minister with the Franciscan Sisters in Dubuque.

Sister Diane has seven brothers — Joseph, Charles, Denis, Philip, Leonard, David and Kenneth — and diocesan seminarian Anthony Rapozo is the son of one of her cousins.