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Fr. Kevin Sheeran, O.S.B.
Our confrere, Father Kevin Sheeran, long-time procurator of St. Procopius Abbey, died at Manor Care, Naperville, IL, early on the morning of March 28, 2009.
Arrangements
The Reception of Fr. Kevin and Wake Service:
Monday, March 30 at 7:00 PM in the Abbey Church
The Funeral and Burial:
Tuesday, March 31 at 10:00 AM in the Abbey Church (burial in the Abbey Cemetery following Mass)
Biography
Born in Lorain, Ohio, on October 7, 1938, James Sheeran came to St. Procopius College in 1956 as a pre-medical student (below, right).
Working on campus in a summer job during the summer of 1958 led him to switch to a philosophy major, with the intent of joining the Benedictine community (below, center).
The necessity of gaining greater proficiency in Latin delayed his entry until after graduation in 1960. He professed his monastic vows on June 24, 1961. During and past his time as a cleric, he taught Latin and English at St. Francis High School in Wheaton, while serving as stationer at St. Procopius College (below, left).
Following his ordination to the priesthood by Bishop Martin McNamara at St. Raymond Nonnatus Cathedral on May 22, 1965, he was appointed assistant business manager at the College and counselor in the residence halls. Father Kevin's competence with finances and strong sense of responsibility was noticed by his superiors, and when the monks moved across the street to the new Abbey building in 1970, he was named procurator, helping his confreres with all the adjustments required by the new situation of living on their own campus.
Whereas for most of its earlier history St. Procopius Abbey had existed financially on a shoestring, the investment policies inaugurated by Father Kevin after the sale of the former Abbey Farm allowed the community to move into its future with a considerable endowment. During these years, Father Kevin took part in the new Masters of Business Administration program at the College and received his degree in 1978. However, the isolation from pastoral care that working full-time at the Abbey entailed was a hardship for Father Kevin, and he welcomed the chance to serve as administrator of Divine Savior Parish, Downers Grove, IL, from 1975-1976 and then as the newly-elected Abbot Valentine Skluzacek's successor as pastor of St. Joan of Arc Parish, Lisle, in 1978.
The needs of the College led him to return there as chief financial officer in early 1984, and the sudden death of Father Maur Dlouhy that September meant that Father Kevin also resumed management of the Abbey's finances. In the course of the 1990s he gradually turned over much of the responsibility for college finances to those more comfortable with technological advances, though he took pleasure when the various spreadsheets he maintained by hand proved more useful than the data theoretically existing somewhere in cyberspace. He remained a cheerful though also forthright presence on campus into the new century, serving as a living archive of most of the school's management history going back nearly fifty years. When there was a need for a Director of Campus Ministry in 2001, he combined that work with his other duties.
The need for more direct supervision of the physical plant aspects of the monastery's strategic plan led Abbot Dismas Kalcic in 2005 to assign Father Kevin full-time at the Abbey, though he remained an active member of the University's Board of Trustees until his death. While health problems troubled Father Kevin from the fall of 2007, his faithfulness at all community exercises and his work in the procurator's office were constant and uncomplaining during his final years.
Please remember Father Kevin in your prayers.
Abbot Dismas and Community
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