Lucye Rafferty/The Hoya Rev. Joseph T. Durkin, S.J.

Rev. Joseph T. Durkin, S.J., professor emeritus of history at Georgetown, died of pneumonia Saturday, May 31 at 11:10 p.m. at Georgetown University Hospital. He was 100 years old.

Fr. Durkin had celebrated his 100th birthday during Georgetown’s undergraduate commencement ceremonies on May 17. The following day, Durkin was hospitalized for surgery after suffering a perforated colon. During the operation more than 300 people from across the country, who had gathered to celebrate his birthday with Mass and reception, prayed for him in Dahlgren Chapel. Though the surgery was successful, Durkin succumbed to pneumonia several days later.

Born in Philadelphia, Pa. in 1903, Fr. Durkin entered the Society of Jesus at age 17 and was ordained a priest in 1933.

In May, the Rev. Brian McDermott, S.J., Rector of the Georgetown Jesuit Community, described Durkin’s role in the Society of Jesus as answering a call from above. According to McDermott, when people asked Durkin why he became a Jesuit, he would often reply: “My answer is simple. I fell passionately in love with Jesus Christ and I stayed in love with him.”

Soon after completing his Ph. D. in history at Fordham University, Fr. Durkin came to Georgetown where he was a professor from 1944 to 1972. He was active in establishing the American Studies program. Though he retired from teaching in 1972, Durkin continued to give tutorials and advise students until 1994.

The author of over 25 books, Fr. Durkin was working on two additional books at the time of his death, one about Jesuit dance and another about rhetoric. In recent years he served as honorary chaplain of Georgetown’s Army ROTC unit, visited Alzheimer’s patients in nursing homes and ministered to prisoners.

Fr. Durkin’s wake will be in Dahlgren Chapel at Georgetown University on Thursday, June 5, from 2-7 p.m. followed by the Mass of Christian Burial at Holy Trinity Church at 7:30 p.m. The burial service will begin Friday at 9 a.m. in Dahlgren Chapel with interment in the Jesuit Cemetery at Georgetown. The services are open to the public.

The new chapel in the Jesuit residence of the Southwest Quad will be named in honor of Fr. Durkin, and funds are being collected to help finance the costs. Questions and donations are handled through the Office of Alumni and University Relations. For further information on the Fr. Durkin Chapel Fund, interested parties should contact Suzanne McGowan at (202) 687-3051.

“People will miss him but in a sense they feel he has gone home to God. They are grateful for his life and inspiration to them,” Charlotte Daniel, assistant to the Rector, said.

Hoya Staff Writer Erin Brown contributed to this report.

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