Reese, Francis X. (Father)

Jesuit Father Francis X. Reese died on Nov. 20, 2018 at the age of 91. He was born in Philadelphia on June 8, 1927. He graduated from St. Joseph’s Prep and attended St. Joseph’s College, where he earned a degree in psychology before entering the Society of Jesus at the Novitiate of St. Isaac Jogues in Wernersville, Pennsylvania in 1950.

Fr. Reese studied philosophy at Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama and theology at Woodstock College, Maryland. He was ordained to the priesthood on June 19, 1960 and later earned an M.T.S. from Regis College in Toronto.

After spending his early ministerial years in secondary education at Georgetown Preparatory School in North Bethesda, Maryland, Bishop’s Latin in Pittsburgh, and St. Joseph’s Prep, Fr. Reese headed to North Carolina in 1978 where he ministered for almost 40 years. His first assignment in the south was retreat work in Hot Springs, North Carolina, followed by service at St. Andrew the Apostle in Mars Hill and St. Peter’s in Charlotte. He returned to Hot Springs in 1989 where he spent ten years as director of the House of Prayer. By the late 1990s, Fr. Reese was engaged in Latino ministry and the ministering of the Spiritual Exercises to various communities in North Carolina. St. Therese in Mooresville became his home in 2011, where he faithfully served the Latino community until his move to St. Claude la Colombiere Jesuit Community in Baltimore in 2017.

Fr. Reese spent his final year in Baltimore serving as a spiritual director before his death.