Alminde, Joseph M.

Jesuit Father Joseph M. Alminde, 80, died March 25, 2011, in Philadelphia. He was a Jesuit for 61 years and a priest for 48.

Fr. Alminde, a Philadelphia native, was born to Agnes A. Haughey and Frank Alminde February 14, 1931. Following his graduation from St. Joseph’s Preparatory School in 1949, he entered the Society of Jesus. He earned his bachelors degree in classics from Bellarmine College in Plattsburg, N.Y., in 1955. He was ordained to the priesthood June 17, 1962, and pronounced his final vows February 2, 1981.

Assignments took Fr. Alminde to Philadelphia four times, to the Jesuit novitiate at Wernersville, Pennsylvania and to Baltimore.

As a scholastic, Fr. Alminde went to Philadelphia where he taught English and Latin from 1956 to 1959 and then again as an English teacher from 1964 to 1966. He was sent to St. Isaac Jogues Novitiate in Wernersville in 1966 where he was socius to the master of novices for brothers from 1966 to 1969. In 1969, he returned to St. Joseph’s Prep to teach religion and language.

He remained there until 1985 when he was assigned to teach English and Latin at Loyola Blakefield in Towson, Md. He taught high school students there until 2000, also serving as minister there from 1885 to 1987.

After a sabbatical at the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley, Calif., Fr. Alminde returned to Philadelphia in 2001. He was associate pastor of Old St. Joseph’s Church from 2001 to 2004 and then he was sent to the Loyola Center at Saint Joseph’s University where he was minister from 2004 to 2009. Until a recent illness, Fr. Alminde lived at the Loyola Center, serving as chaplain for Visitation Convent.