Fr. Joseph Flanagan, S.J. "Rest In Peace"

Living an intellectual life, the Rev. Joseph Flanagan, S.J. believed, is a way of knowing God. At times, when lost in thought, he seemed to gaze beyond mortal constraints. For many summers, he and several friends would spend a few weeks away from their work at Boston College (pictured) and vacation along the coast of Maine. “It was a nonstop conversation, punctuated by long periods in which the rest of us would be reading and Joe would sit on the porch,’’ said the Rev. Joseph Appleyard, BC’s vice president for university mission and ministry. “He’d have a book on his lap, but most of the time he’d be studying the ocean and the horizon. I think that’s what fed the mystical side of him.’’ There was a deeply practical side, too. While Father Flanagan led the philosophy department from 1965 to 1993, BC created a doctoral program in the discipline. He also played a major role in creating two undergraduate programs that are considered among the most inspirational and popular the school offers. Father Flanagan, who taught at the university for 47 years and used the example of his own spiritual path to help guide generations of students, died of a heart attack Friday in the Jesuit residence at the college. He was 84 and had finished teaching two courses in the spring semester.
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