A Mass of Christian Burial for Marianist Father Edmund Rhodes, 97, was held at Immaculate Conception Chapel on the campus of the University of Dayton on Nov. 10. Father Rhodes died Nov. 3 in Dayton. He was a Marianist religious for almost 80 years.

A native of Randolph, Ohio, Father Rhodes entered the postulate for the Society of Mary at Mount St. John in Dayton a few days before his 15th birthday. He professed first vows in 1929 and perpetual vows in 1932 at Mount St. John and was ordained in Fribourg, Switzerland, in 1941.

He taught philosophy at the University of Dayton for more than 35 years.

He began his ministry as an educator in 1930 at Immaculate Conception School in Washington, D.C. Other teaching assignments followed at Mineola, N.Y., Philadelphia and Cleveland. After seminary studies in Fribourg and a year of studies in Washington, D.C., Father Rhodes taught at Trinity College in Sioux City, Iowa, Mount St. John, and St. John the Baptist High School in Philadelphia.

In 1947, Father Rhodes began what would become 36 years of ministry at the University of Dayton. At UD, he served as a philosophy professor and was chairman of the philosophy department from 1951 to 1964. Father Rhodes also served as assistant dean and dean of the college of arts and sciences at UD from 1953 to 1958.

Father Rhodes held a bachelor's degree in philosophy from the University of Dayton, a licentiate in sacred theology (S.T.L.) from Catholic University in Washington, D.C., with an emphasis in philosophy. He did graduate work at Lateran Law School in Rome and the University of Louvain in Belgium.

Father Rhodes shifted his focus to pastoral work in 1983, assisting at Resurrection Parish and serving as chaplain to the Marianist community in Tempe, Ariz., St. Aloysius Parish in Cleveland and Nativity Parish in Hollywood, Fla., where he served as associate pastor.

Father Rhodes retired from active ministry in 1990 and spent a year with the Marianist community in Hollywood, Fla., before entering the retirement community at the Franciscan at St. Leonard Healthcare center in Centerville. In 2003, Father Rhodes moved to Mercy Siena in Dayton.

Burial was in Queen of Heaven Cemetery at Mount St. John.

Jesuit Father Kevin E. Gallagher

Jesuit Father Kevin E. Gallagher, a missionary in Peru for 43 years, died Nov. 3 at St. Margaret Hall at the age of 78.

A native of Cincinnati, Father Gallagher worked in Peru to establish schools for the urban and rural poor through Fe y Alegría (Faith and Joy). A Jesuit-founded-organization, Fe y Alegría has built 70 high schools and many more grammar schools in Peru and serves more than 70,000 students throughout South America. Much of Father Gallagher's work involved preparing teachers academically and spiritually for their work in these schools.

COURTESY PHOTO

Jesuit Father Kevin Gallagher

After graduating from Xavier University with a B.A. in philosophy, he entered the Jesuit novitiate in Milford in 1951. He earned an M.A. in English from Loyola University Chicago and an S.T.L. from West Baden College in Indiana in 1962. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1961.

Father Gallagher began his ministry in Peru as a religion teacher and vice principal for Colegio San José in Arequipa in 1964. He became the Jesuit major superior for the southern region of Peru in 1968. In 1973, he started his most lengthy ministry as educational advisor for Fe y Alegría in Lima.

"Kevin wanted to work with the poor," said Jesuit Father T. Mattingly Garr. "His true gift was as a reconciler. He was convinced that if you kept on talking, people would come together. Like Lima's famous St. Martin de Porres, he could get a cat, a dog, and a mouse to drink from the same bowl and enjoy it."

In 1997, Father Gallagher became president and rector at Lima's Colegio de la Inmaculada, a post he held until 2003, when he returned to Colegio San José in Arequipa, this time as educational advisor to the rector and principal. He returned to Cincinnati last summer for knee surgery, but suffered a recurrence of cancer. His wish was to die in Peru, but his condition worsened too rapidly for him to do so.

He is survived by a niece and nephews in Cincinnati.

A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated Nov. 7 at Bellarmine Chapel at Xavier University in Cincinnati.

Interment followed in Milford.