Obituary | Fr. William W. Williams, SJ
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A funeral Mass was celebrated July 17 at St. Ignatius Loyola Church in Denver for Jesuit Father William W. Williams, who served at St. Louis University during the 1970s in campus ministry and student services.
Father Williams died July 12 in Denver after a battle with cancer. He was 74 years old and a Jesuit for 57 years.
Born in Kansas City, Mo., he entered the Society of Jesus at St. Stanislaus Seminary in Florissant in 1955. He completed a degree in philosophy, and taught English and Latin at a Denver high school for two years. After graduate study in modern languages, he completed his licentiate in theology at the Jesuitenkolleg in Innsbruck, Austria. Father Williams was ordained to the priesthood in, 1968 in Innsbruck.
After completing his theology studies, Father Williams served for a year as a civilian contract chaplain in the U.S. Army in Heidelberg, West Germany. During the 1970s he worked in campus ministry and student services at Regis College in Denver and St. Louis University. During that time, he completed graduate work in college student personnel administration at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley.
After two years as socius to the director of novices in Denver, Father Williams was assigned to Rockhurst University where he served as assistant to the president from 1982-93 and as minister of the community from 1989-93.
In 1994, Father Williams moved full time into retreat ministry, first at the Jesuit Spirituality Center in Milford, Ohio, and then at Sacred Heart Jesuit Retreat House in Sedalia, Colo. From 2002 until his death, he served as the minister of the Xavier Jesuit Community in Denver where he was also engaged in pastoral and ecumenical work.
Father Williams had a great love for the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola and appreciated the opportunity to share those with others.
