Rest In Peace: Fr. Lucius F. Cervantes, S.J.

ST. LOUIS : As director of Agency on Aging, priest advocated for elderly
07/08/2008

The (Link is from Time Magazine 1958) Rev. Lucius F. Cervantes, former longtime executive director of the St. Louis Area Agency on Aging, died Thursday (July 3, 2008) at Fusz Pavilion for senior Jesuits in St. Louis. He was 94 and a priest of the Jesuit order.

Father Cervantes was born in St. Louis and educated in Catholic schools. He earned a doctorate in sociology and anthropology from St. Louis University.

Father Cervantes conducted numerous sociological studies and published several books, including "The Dropout: Causes and Cures" and "Love One Another: Stories Families Love to Retell." He won the Ford Foundation Award and a Book-of-the-Year Award for "Successful American Families" in 1960. His youngest sibling, Alfonso J. Cervantes, became St. Louis' 19th mayor in 1965. The brothers were described as the perfect complement to each other.

While Alfonso Cervantes was charismatic and flamboyant, Father Lucius Cervantes was scholarly and analytical. Father Cervantes was his brother's aide, research assistant and trusted adviser.

He worked with city welfare projects and lobbied in Washington for federal assistance with growing social problems in St. Louis. He was appointed commissioner of the Mayor's Office on Aging, an institution created by his brother. For 15 years, Father Cervantes was executive director of the office, which later became known as the St. Louis Area Agency on Aging. He helped advise the elderly on ways to qualify for federal supplemental income and served on an anticrime committee to teach seniors how to protect themselves.

Father Cervantes' office oversaw 45 neighborhood centers and provided thousands of meals to the elderly every day. In 1977, Father Cervantes founded Senior Home Security, a program in which handymen made minor repairs, such as fixing screens or leaky faucets, for elderly or disabled residents.

He served as Missouri delegate to the third White House Conference on Aging in 1981. In 1986, then Mayor Vincent C. Schoemehl Jr. laid off Father Cervantes and 23 other employees of the St. Louis Area Agency on Aging because of reductions in federal aid. Father Cervantes unsuccessfully fought Schoemehl's decision.

In 1988, Father Cervantes was appointed director of the New York development office of the Gregorian University Foundation. The university, which is based in Rome, is the flagship school of the Jesuits.

He retired in 2002. Father Cervantes co-chaired the Citywide Committee for Better Schools during the controversial St. Louis Public Schools board election of 1987. Of the 10 candidates vying for four seats on the board, four belonged to an alleged white-rights group. Father Cervantes endorsed other candidates and urged racial equality. Father Cervantes was a former board member of Metropolitan Employment and Rehabilitation Service, which aims to help the blind and those with vision impairments develop independence at home and at work. A funeral Mass for Father Cervantes was celebrated Monday night. Interment is at 9 a.m. today in Calvary Cemetery. Alfonso Cervantes died in 1983 and Father Cervantes had no immediate survivors. Memorial contributions may be made to the Jesuits of the Missouri Province, 4511 West Pine Boulevard, St. Louis, Mo. 63108.

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