Denzer, Thomas F.

Fr. Thomas F. Denzer, SJ, died Monday evening, September 20, 2010, at the Fusz Pavilion in St. Louis, Missouri. He was 86 years old and a Jesuit for 61 years. Born in Kansas City, Missouri, on the Feast of St. Ignatius Loyola, 1924, he attended both Rockhurst College and Regis College and served in the U.S. Army Air Force from 1943 to 1946. He entered the Society of Jesus at St. Stanislaus Seminary in Florissant, Missouri, on August 8, 1949, and was ordained on June 16, 1961, at St. Mary’s College in Kansas.

After ordination and tertianship, Fr. Denzer began a long career on the economics faculty at Rockhurst University. He was known and appreciated as a dedicated and demanding teacher. Fr. Denzer taught in a classroom that had blackboards on every wall. He filled these with the material to be covered in class using different colors of chalk. He began each class with a quiz and carefully calculated the points earned by each student. On two or three occasions the Rockhurst students voted him the outstanding teacher of the year. When lay persons were appointed to the Rockhurst University Board of Trustees in the 1970s, Tom was chosen as the first chairman.

In 1991, Fr. Denzer retired from teaching and began working for the Office of Institutional Advancement at Rockhurst. In this position he was the constant companion of the Rockhurst Chancellor, Father Maurice Van Ackeren, S.J., assisting him in his fund raising endeavors. Always well known among alumni and throughout the Kansas City community, Fr. Denzer regularly joined in funeral celebrations and alumni gatherings. In 2002 he moved to the Fusz Pavilion where he continued to pray for family, friends, and the work of the Society of Jesus.

He is survived by his brothers, Ted and Jack, his sister, Peggy Bell, and their families.