Let us pray in thanksgiving for the life of Fr. Walter "Wally" J. Stohrer, SJ, who was called to eternal life on July 14, 2018. Wally died at St. Camillus senior Jesuit healthcare community, in Wauwatosa, Wis. He was eighty-eight years old, a Jesuit for sixty-nine years, and a priest for fifty-six years.

Born in Evanston, Ill. on February 2, 1930, Wally attended grade school in Peoria, Ill. and Omaha, Neb. After graduating from Creighton Preparatory School in Omaha, he entered the Society on August 8, 1947. Wally had the usual Jesuit course of studies at St. Stanislaus Seminary, Gonzaga University, and the University of Innsbruck in Austria. He was ordained in Innsbruck on July 26, 1960, made tertianship in Decatur, Ill., and pronounced his final vows on September 8, 1980. In 1968 he earned a Ph.D. in philosophy from Georgetown University.

After regency at Marquette University High School in Milwaukee, Wally spent most of his years of active ministry teaching philosophy at Creighton University in Omaha, Neb. (1962-1963 and 1967-1971) and at Marquette University in Milwaukee (1972-2010). He served as rector of the Marquette University Jesuit Community (1977-1983) and, in his later years, as a spiritual and retreat director and as chaplain of the Marquette University College of Nursing.

Wally was committed to the ministry of higher education and very effective both in the classroom and in his pastoral ministry to students, faculty, and staff. He was a quiet, extremely reliable and steady companion in his Jesuit community. He remained intellectually alive and active even after declining health led to his moving to the St. Camillus Jesuit Community in 2015.