Meagher, Walter J. (Walter James), 1895-1989

When Father Walter J. Meagher died on Sunday, November 26, at the age of 94, he was the oldest living former professor of Boston College, and senior among the 630 Jesuits in New England. The Mass of Christian Burial was held in St. Mary's Chapel, with an eloquent sermon by Father David R. Cummiskey, SJ, former theology professor. Walter Meagher was born in Watertown in 1895, graduated from Boston College High School and joined the Jesuits in 1915. He studied for four years at St. Andrew-on-Hudson, the Jesuits' preparatory seminary in Poughkeepsie, and made his religious vows there on July 31, 1917. Philosophy studies followed at Woodstock College in Maryland; then three years of teaching as a Jesuit at the Ateneo de Manila, the Jesuit university. He returned to Woodstock in 1925 to begin theology studies, which he finished at Weston College in Massachusetts. He was ordained to the priesthood at Weston on June 20, 1928, and went the following year to College of the Holy Cross. He taught history at Holy Cross from 1929 to 1954, a period broken only by a year of final Jesuit studies, and two years in doctoral studies. Fordham awarded him his Ph.D. in history in 1944. He came to Boston College and joined the School of Nursing faculty to teach history in 1954. He also directed the nurses' prayer groups, and for several years was moderator of basketball. He published in 1966 "The Spires of Fenwick," his history of Holy Cross since its founding in 1843. The previous year he had paid his scholar's respects to Boston College with "A Proper Bostonian, Priest, Jesuit: the diary of Joseph Coolidge Shaw." Shaw, a convert to Catholicism and a Jesuit, left his library to the new Boston College. Meagher's edition of the Shaw diary earned respect in many quarters, including the praise of Samuel Eliot Morison, then dean of New England historians. Walter Meagher retired from active teaching in 1967, but hardly from anything else. He continued his research in Boston History of the 19th century, and a wide correspondence among scholars who shared his interest.

Walter J. Meagher, SJ was born in Watertown, Massachusetts in 1895, graduated from Boston College High School, and joined the Jesuits in 1915. Meagher studied for four years at St. Andrew-on-Hudson, the Jesuits' preparatory seminary in Poughkeepsie, New York, and made his religious vows there in 1917. He studied philosophy at Woodstock College in Maryland, and then taught at the Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines for three years. Meagher was ordained a priest in 1928 at Weston College, and earned a Ph.D. in history in 1944 from Fordham University. He taught history at College of the Holy Cross from 1929 to 1954, and joined the School of Nursing faculty at Boston College to teach history in 1954 until his retirement in 1967.

Meagher was also an author, and in 1965 completed "A Proper Bostonian, Priest, Jesuit: the diary of Joseph Coolidge Shaw", an annotated diary collected from the memoirs of Shaw, the first benefactor of Boston College. A year later, Meagher published "The Spires of Fenwick", his history of Holy Cross since founding in 1843.

After retiring from teaching, Meagher was appointed spiritual counselor to the Boston College community. He died on November 26, 1989.