Walter J. Feeney was born on January 20, 1925 in Boston, to parents Walter Feeney and Marie Bawo. Feeney graduated from Boston College in 1948 and then earned several graduate degrees, including a Ph.D from Catholic University of America in 1954. He was ordained a priest in 1956, and in 1958 he became professor of Math and Philosophy at Boston College. From 1966 to 1969 he served as Dean of the University's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and later directed the Program for Jesuit Studies. Feeney died on February 12, 1977, at the age of 52.