Walter James Feeney, SJ was born on January 20, 1925 in Boston, Massachusetts, to Marie T. and Walter J. Feeney. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy from Boston College and several graduate degrees, including a Ph.D. in mathematics from Catholic University of America in 1954. Feeney was ordained in 1956, and received his Licentiate in Sacred Theology from Weston College in 1958. He became a professor of mathematics and philosophy at Boston College in 1958, served as Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences from 1966 to 1969, and went on to direct the Program for Jesuit Studies. Feeney was also a member of numerous scholarly organizations, including the American Mathematical Society, the Mathematical Association of America, the Society of Sigma Xi, and he was the Treasurer of the Association for Symbolic Logic. Feeney died on February 12, 1977.