It is not often that a Roman Catholic nun serves in an elective
office and in so doing stands out as an exceptional public servant
and an effective politician. But Pima County was fortunate to
have such a person in Sister Clare Dunn, whom midtown Tucson
voters elected to four terms in the Arizona House of Representatives
from 1974 to 1980.
Rep. Dunn, a Democrat, perished in an automobile accident on Interstate
10 north of Tucson on July 30, 1981, not long after completing
her seventh legislative session. She was only 46. She is the only
nun ever to serve in the Arizona Legislature and was the Democrats'
assistant minority leader for the 1981 session.
"She was a very special person who had opponents, but no
enemies," former state Sen. Alfredo Gutierrez, D-Phoenix,
said in 1981 upon learning of her death.
Dunn was respected widely for her consistent commitment to acting
and advocating for low-income and working people - and for her
ability to get bills through the legislative process without resorting
to back-room deals or political grandstanding.
Then-House Minority Leader Art Hamilton, D-Phoenix, said he considered
her a co-minority leader rather than an assistant minority leader. "She
only got better the longer she was here," Hamilton said. "You
had to worry about her ferocity, but never her ego. That put her
in a singular class in this body."
Even such conservatives as former Rep. Jim Skelly, R-Scottsdale,
admired and respected Dunn. "She really lived her religion,
her faith, in her day-to-day life and in her legislative life," Skelly
said. "She tried to use the system to help those she felt
were getting a raw deal - the poor, the minorities, the downtrodden.
She worked her tail off for them."
Dunn was a native of Riverside, Calif., and graduated from Riverside
Polytechnic High School in 1952. She joined the Congregation of
Sisters of St. Joseph in 1955. She earned a bachelor's degree from
Mount St. Mary's College in Los Angeles in 1963 and was sent to
Tucson to teach at St. Joseph's Academy in 1965. When that school foleded in 1969, Dunn was transferred to teach at Salpointe High School. She also completed
work for a master's degree from Mount St. Mary's in 1969.