Jesuit Priest Has Aids, Will Resign President Of Seattle Prep Revealed Condition Friday To Staff, Parents

Sun., May 7, 1995

Associated Press

The president of the academically prestigious Seattle Preparatory School has AIDS and plans to resign by next month, the school announced.

The Rev. Terry Shea, a Jesuit priest and president of the private high school since 1992, becomes the first acknowledged case of AIDS among Seattle Catholic clergy.

Shea made his condition public Friday after meeting with faculty and mailing letters to parents of the school’s 635 students.

“Unfortunately my strength and general health have declined to the point where I cannot continue serving as president at Prep past this school year,” Shea, 57, said in a statement.

An acting president will be chosen later this month, said Joseph Gaffney, chairman of the school’s board of trustees. Shea’s resignation takes effect June 30.

Diagnosed in the late 1980s with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, Shea has lost weight and had endured a recent bout of pneumonia. He was diagnosed with AIDS a year ago.

Seattle Preparatory officials were not aware Shea had HIV at the time he was hired, said the Rev. Brad Reynolds, a school spokesman.

Reynolds would not reveal how Shea contracted the disease.

But he said, “No one connected with the Seattle Prep community is at risk or has been at risk” of contracting AIDS from Shea.

Counselors will be on hand Monday to help students troubled by the news, Reynolds said.

School trustees were told of Shea’s condition and impending resignation Tuesday.

Seattle Archbishop Thomas Murphy and Shea’s superiors in the Jesuit order in Portland had been told about the illness earlier, Reynolds said.

Shea, a member of the Jesuit order since 1955, taught political science at Seattle University before becoming president of the high school.

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