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Sat 07 Jul 2007Innovator and advocate of education and geographySister Stella Fitzpatrick,who has died aged 90, was a geography teacher whose outstanding contribution to Irish education was officially recognised when in 2002 the degree of Doctor of Literature honoris causa was conferred on her by the National University of Ireland, Maynooth.The eldest child in a family of seven, she was born in Thurles, Co Tipperary, in 1917. After attending the local Presentation convent and Coláiste Bhríde, Falcarragh, Co Donegal, she trained as a teacher at Our Lady of Mercy College of Education, Carysfort Park, Dublin. Following her graduation in 1938 she entered the Loreto Order, making her final profession in 1946.