The daughter of Christopher and Amelia Kaster Schmidt, Alma was born April 19, 1891, in Louisville, Ky. She obtained her elementary and secondary education in the Louisville public schools. Following graduation, she went to work as a secretary and bookkeeper. After her marriage to Robert O’Brien, she continued to work. In the days following Robert’s tragic death, Alma often went into St. Patrick Church for peace and quiet. She met Father James Cronin, pastor, who greatly influenced her life. She became a Catholic. Although her family completely disowned her, she never wavered in her decision. She felt the call to religious life and entered the novitiate at Mount Saint Joseph. She received the Ursuline habit on August 15, 1923, and became Sister Robert Irene.
Sister Robert Irene’s first teaching assignment was at Mount Saint Joseph Academy where she taught in the commercial department. She was then assigned to St. Bernard Academy in Nebraska City, Neb. She later taught in parochial and public high schools of Kentucky: Holy Cross, Flaherty, Lebanon (St. Charles), and Owensboro (St. Joseph). In these schools she taught commercial courses, but also helped with the teaching of home economics and biology. Sister Robert Irene became the art instructor at Brescia College, in Owensboro, in 1955. She remained there for 20 years teaching china painting, oil painting, and ceramics. In honor of her golden anniversary as an Ursuline Sister in 1974, her friends and students established the Sister Robert Irene Art Scholarship at Brescia College. She retired from Brescia in 1975, lived at Blessed Mother Convent and gave private art lessons.
Due to ill health, Sister Robert Irene retired to Mount Saint Joseph in 1981. She celebrated her 90th birthday that year. Many of her students remembered her with love and spoke of her as being an excellent teacher who taught them “what was not in books: honesty, loyalty to a cause, and a love of their Catholic faith.” Sister Robert Irene died of congestive heart failure at Mercy Hospital on February 27, 1982. In death she gave herself as quietly and as graciously as she had lived. Father Bernard Barnes, OSM, and three other priests concelebrated the funeral Mass on March 1. Father Anthony Ziegler delivered the homily. Sister Robert Irene’s remains are laid to rest in the convent cemetery. Her sister‑in‑law, Sister Hilary O’Brien, OSU, preceded her in death.