In Memoriam

Wallace, Francis “Jerry” K. SJ

posted by: tricia on Monday, September 08, 2008

Father Francis K. Wallace SJ died peacefully Saturday, July 26, 2008, at the Metropolitan Hospital in Managua, Nicaragua. He died of complications following two intestinal surgeries. He was 92 years old.

Fr. Wallace, who known to most of his friends as Jerry, was born in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, on December 25, 1915. He entered the Society of Jesus at Florissant, Missouri, on August 8, 1933, and was ordained on June 16, 1946, at St. Mary’s College in Kansas. As a young scholastic, Jerry was sent to Belize where he taught English, elocution and math at St. John’s College. He pronounced his final vows on August 15, 1949, and was assigned to Rockhurst High School where he taught English, Latin and religion until 1971 when he became the minister of the community. He began teaching Spanish at that time and helped direct plays until 1977. Following a brief sabbatical at the Mexican American Cultural Center in San Antonio, Texas, he was assigned to be associate pastor in Mount Carmel Parish in Pueblo, Colorado. In 1979 he became pastor of the parish and served in that position for three years, after which he became the superior of the Pavilion at Fusz Memorial on the campus of Saint Louis University. Then he was off to Kansas City where he was associate pastor at St. Francis Xavier Church from 1983 to 1987. When he was 72 years old, Jerry volunteered to go to Panama where, as part of our twinning agreement with the province of Central America, he taught English to the novices. He enjoyed the work and was loved by the novices. He spent some fifteen years working with the novices until failing eye-sight and poor health necessitated his move to the Jesuit infirmary in Managua, where he has prayed for the Church and the Society. Jerry was raised by foster parents and is survived by his brother, Jack Kennedy. A funeral Mass was celebrated on Sunday, July 27, at the Colegio Centro America. He will be remembered with affection as a humble and approachable man who found simple and effective ways of integrating educational and pastoral ministries throughout his life. He served as a priest for 62 years, dying as he neared the end of his 75th year as a Jesuit.