Kehres, Paul

Fr. Paul “Sam” Kehres, SJ, teacher and Jesuit of the Patna Province of India, died on March 26, 2010 at age 90, in the western Indian city of Pune. Fr. Kehres was born to Leo and Lenora (née Hengstler) Kehres on December 15, 1919, in Defiance, Ohio, where he was raised with his four brothers and three sisters. Fr. Kehres entered the Society on September 1, 1938, a year after his older brother Fr. John C. Kehres, SJ, who died in 2007. Fr. Sam Kehres was ordained on June 13, 1951, in West Baden, Indiana. In 1956 Fr. Kehres went to India, where he served as a professor at the Papal Seminary and De Nobili College in Pune. “He taught biology and inferior psychology,” says Fr. Theodore Bowling, SJ, friend and colleague of Fr. Kehres. “Someone once dubbed him as the superior professor of inferior psychology.”

In 1967 Fr. Kehres went to serve as a professor of biology and psychology at Sacred Heart College at Shembaganur in southern India. In 1972, he returned to Pune to resume his service at De Nobili College as both registrar and a teacher. Fr. Kehres continued to serve at De Nobili College for the rest of his life, wearing many hats over the years including superior of the philosophers, house treasurer, and house librarian.

Apart from his official duties, Fr. Kerhres was always available to the staff for proof-reading articles or books meant for publication, and to students for help in writing their assignments. “He was known to all the children around the campus as the Jadu Father, the one who does tricks with strings and wire puzzles to entertain them. By so doing he won the appreciation and thanks of the children’s parents,” says Fr. Bowling. “He died as he lived, quietly and peacefully, but his absence will be felt by all.”