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Cain, William F. (Father)

January 14, 2017

Jesuit Father William F. Cain, a long-time resident of Sacred Heart Jesuit Center, Los Gatos, California, died on Jan. 14, 2017, at a San Jose hospital. He was 79.

Cain, William F.

Jesuit Father William F. Cain, a long-time resident of Sacred Heart Jesuit Center, Los Gatos, California, died on Jan. 14, 2017, at a San Jose hospital. He was 79.

Fr. Cain was born in Orange, California on April 7, 1937, attended Loyola High School, Los Angeles, and graduated from Loyola University in 1958 with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry. He worked for the missile and space division of Lockheed as an associate research and development scientist for a year before entering the Jesuit Novitiate at Los Gatos in 1959.

Fr. Cain’s studies were made at Los Gatos (classics), St. Louis University (BA, PhL, philosophy), University of Detroit (MS, chemistry), and the Alma College campus of Santa Clara University (STM, theology). A break in studies saw him teaching chemistry and mathematics at Loyola High School, Los Angeles, 1965-66. He was ordained a priest in Blessed Sacrament Church, Hollywood, in 1969.

Fr. Cain pursued doctoral work in chemistry at the University of California San Diego, and received his PhD in 1975. In 1974 he began a long association on the faculty of Loyola [Marymount] University, where he served as department chair on several occasions and chair of the faculty senate. Health problems brought him to Regis Infirmary at Sacred Heart Jesuit Center, Los Gatos, in 2009.

Fr. Cain is survived by a brother, Jim, of Los Angeles, and two sisters, Margaret Dunkle of Reading, Pennsylvania, and Mary Collier of Fullerton, California.