Obituary: Carroll, Fr. J. Alfred Sj
Age 84
J. Alfred SJ Died September 11, 2013, at the Regis Jesuit residence in Spokane.
Priest, teacher, adminis-trator, friend, tireless advocate; Al wore these hats and many more in a life that reached well beyond the Pacific Northwest.
One of three siblings, John Alfred Carroll was born in Seattle, WA on October 26, 1928 to Emmett H. and Mary V. (Kelly) Carroll.
He graduated from Seattle Preparatory School in 1946 and entered the Jesuit Novitiate at Sheridan, OR, in July 1946.
Al was ordained a priest on July 31, 1959, in Frankfurt, Germany.
Following ordination, Fr.
Carroll taught at Seattle Prep and Bellarmine Prep (Tacoma, WA); at Bellarmine he also served as vice-principal and principal.
At both schools he coached outstanding speech teams.
In 1972 Fr.
Carroll began a long career at Gonzaga University, ably assisting students, faculty, and administration through the Dean’s Office in the College of Arts and Sciences.
His attention to detail helped keep many students on track to their graduation.
With the fall of Saigon in 1975 Fr.
Carroll saw a special need to assist refugees from Vietnam and began a program to help them.
The plight of the Amerasians (children of Vietnamese / Korean mothers and American fathers) became a major concern to him; he responded by helping hundreds of these young people come to the U.S. and to successfully lobby Congress to pass the Amerasian Homecoming Act of 1982.
For his tireless advocacy Fr.
Carroll was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws by Gonzaga University in 1987.
Fr.
Carroll was preceded in death by his brother, Fr.
Emmett Carroll, SJ, who died in July 2013.
He is survived by his sister Mrs. Joanne Sullivan (Lombard, IL); nephews Jim, Michael and John Sullivan; niece Ann Schwartz; seven grand-nephews and grand-nieces, many cousins, countless friends as well as his brother Jesuits of the Oregon Province.
A vigil service will be held at 7:00pm, Monday, September 16, at the Jesuit House Chapel on the Gonzaga University campus.
The funeral Mass will be 10:00 am, Tuesday, September 17, at St. Aloysius Church.
Burial will follow at the Oregon Province Cemetery.
Contributions in honor of Fr.
Al Carroll, SJ, may be sent to The Senior Fund, c/o The Oregon Province Society of Jesus (P.O.
Box 86010, Portland, OR 97286) and/or the Friends of The Amerasians (c/o The Regis Jesuit Community, 1107 N. Astor St., Spokane, WA 99202).