Vincent Joseph Beuzer

Rev. Vincent J. Beuzer, S.J., age 84, died on Sunday, Nov. 13, 2011, at Cardinal Bea House for retired Jesuits in Spokane. The son of Vincent John Beuzer and Augusta Catarina Obit, he was born in Everett, Washington on August 24, 1927. After elementary school he attended Bellarmine High School in Tacoma, graduating in 1945. That August he entered the Jesuit novitiate in Sheridan, Oregon, to begin thirteen years of study leading to the priesthood. In 1949 he went to Mt. St. Michael’s in Spokane to study philosophy for three years. From there he was sent to Seattle Prep for “regency,” a three year period of teaching high school age boys. Theological studies followed at Alma College in Los Gatos, California. Father Beuzer was ordained a priest on June 14, 1958, at St. Aloysius Church, Spokane. His “tertianship,” a final year of spiritual formation before pronouncing final vows as a Jesuit, was spent at Manresa Hall in Port Townsend, Washington. After graduate studies at the Gregorian University in Rome, he embarked upon a span of eighteen years of teaching theology at Gonzaga University. During that time he also served for a period as the rector of the Jesuit Community. In 1987 Fr. Beuzer began a long and completely new ministry as director of the Holy Spirit Retreat House in Anchorage, Alaska. In 2011 in failing health, he spent a short time at Bellarmine Prep in Tacoma and then was sent to Bea House to live out his short, final days. Fr. Beuzer is survived by two sisters, Mary Siridakis and Lillian Gould. A vigil service will take place at the Jesuit House Chapel at Gonzaga University on Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2011, at 7:00pm. The Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Thursday, Nov. 17, 2011, at 11:00am, also at the Jesuit House Chapel.