Page 15 - The Gonzaga Record 1994
P. 15
in Gonzaga, I can assure all who served under him that Fr Eddie was a man of
infinite wit, with a loud and infectious laugh, and he was a great swopper of
stories - ‘for many a joke had he’.
Yet he was kind; or if severe in aught,
The love he bore for learning was in fault.
Fr Eddie was a learned man with a deep love of learning. Most of his time in
Belvedere he taught English and some French, but also spoke Irish fluently. In
any language he was a purist and perfectionist and was steeped in semantics. As
a former Classics teacher I like to think that this derived from his profound
know ledge of L atin, and here I m ight add that am ong his w orks was a
translation of the Memoriale of Br Peter Faber SJ commissioned by the Jesuit
Resources Institute in the USA. For many a year he accompanied a group of
B elvedere boys to S tratford-on-A von, and so becam e know n to m any
Gonzagians who shared this experience with the sister college.
While in Gonzaga he gave no evidence of athletic prowess; he was far more at
home with dusty volumes than muddy fields. Yet I remember him as a faithful
follower of this College’s fortunes when the Cup matches got under way. One
picture I relish of him was the occasion when he had been persuaded to take bat
in hand for some cricket match - it may have been Staff versus Boys, I don’t
rightly remember. Anyway I see him now, caparisoned in minuscule pads,
standing uncertainly at the wicket and peering suspiciously towards the other
end as if there was a Curtly Ambrose lurking to deliver a lethal ball.
As he neared his four-score years his health collapsed and the dimming of an
already weak sight must have been a great frustration to one for whom books
and learning were such nourishment. His final period on earth was spent in a
nursing home where he gradually loosened his grip on this world and began to
breathe the airs of eternity. He passed away quietly on 20 January 1994, aged
eighty-one.
May his gentle soul rest contentedly today in the happiness of God's home.
Edmund Keane SJ.
7
infinite wit, with a loud and infectious laugh, and he was a great swopper of
stories - ‘for many a joke had he’.
Yet he was kind; or if severe in aught,
The love he bore for learning was in fault.
Fr Eddie was a learned man with a deep love of learning. Most of his time in
Belvedere he taught English and some French, but also spoke Irish fluently. In
any language he was a purist and perfectionist and was steeped in semantics. As
a former Classics teacher I like to think that this derived from his profound
know ledge of L atin, and here I m ight add that am ong his w orks was a
translation of the Memoriale of Br Peter Faber SJ commissioned by the Jesuit
Resources Institute in the USA. For many a year he accompanied a group of
B elvedere boys to S tratford-on-A von, and so becam e know n to m any
Gonzagians who shared this experience with the sister college.
While in Gonzaga he gave no evidence of athletic prowess; he was far more at
home with dusty volumes than muddy fields. Yet I remember him as a faithful
follower of this College’s fortunes when the Cup matches got under way. One
picture I relish of him was the occasion when he had been persuaded to take bat
in hand for some cricket match - it may have been Staff versus Boys, I don’t
rightly remember. Anyway I see him now, caparisoned in minuscule pads,
standing uncertainly at the wicket and peering suspiciously towards the other
end as if there was a Curtly Ambrose lurking to deliver a lethal ball.
As he neared his four-score years his health collapsed and the dimming of an
already weak sight must have been a great frustration to one for whom books
and learning were such nourishment. His final period on earth was spent in a
nursing home where he gradually loosened his grip on this world and began to
breathe the airs of eternity. He passed away quietly on 20 January 1994, aged
eighty-one.
May his gentle soul rest contentedly today in the happiness of God's home.
Edmund Keane SJ.
7
