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In Memoriam

Jesuit Father Gerard C. Reedy died March 11, 2016. He was 76.

Born in Bellerose, New York, on Oct. 25, 1939, Fr. Reedy was son of Charles and Margaret (Deasy) Reedy. He attended Regis High School in New York and entered the Society of Jesus in 1957. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Fordham in 1963 and 1965, a Licentiate in Philosophy and a Bachelor of Divinity from Woodstock College in 1964 and 1970, and a doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania in 1973.

Throughout his career, Fr. Reedy was first and foremost a teacher. He began his career teaching Latin, English and religion at Brooklyn Prep, when he was still a Jesuit scholastic.

Fr. Reedy devoted nearly 40 years of his career to teaching and leadership at Fordham University. He joined the English faculty at Fordham in 1973 and later served as chair of the English department. He was appointed dean of Fordham College at Rose Hill in 1986, served as dean for six years and, in 1992, was appointed vice president for academic affairs.

In 1994, Fr. Reedy became the 30th president of the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. In addition to living in the residence halls at Holy Cross (as he had done at Fordham), Fr. Reedy met regularly with student leaders, dined with students and taught courses, even during his presidency. He served from 1994 to 1998 before stepping down for health reasons.

In 1999, he returned to Fordham, this time as the Loyola Chair in Humanities at Spellman Hall. He became dean of the Marymount College of Fordham University in 2001, and saw the school through to its closure in 2007.

During the last decade of his life, Fr. Reedy continued writing scholarly articles, offered spiritual direction to the Fordham community and taught honors program seminars to undergraduates. A prolific writer, Fr. Reedy authored numerous articles published in academic journals and wrote two books, “The Bible and Reason: Anglicans and Scripture in Late Seventeenth-Century England” and “Robert South (1634-1716): An Introduction to His Life and Sermons.”

At the time of his death, he had served as professor at Fordham since 2008.

Fr. Reedy is survived by his sister, Eileen, and two nephews, Charles and Paul Divone.