By Tom Burke
Jesuit Father Edward Vincent Stackpoole, a former superior of the Jesuit Community at the University of San Francisco and a teacher at the school for 32 years, died July 18 at Sacred Heart Jesuit Center in Los Gatos.
Father Stackpoole, a graduate of San Francisco's St. Monica Elementary School and the Jesuit's St. Ignatius College Preparatory, entered the Jesuit order in 1943 and was ordained in 1956.
"Ed was a very wise man who never said anything negative about anyone, a man of total charity," said Jesuit Father Joseph Angilella, minister of the USF Jesuit community and scheduled to be among funeral Mass concelebrants. "He was a mainstay of the USF campus. When he was rector he was a very wonderful rector. Everyone had great respect for him as a man of prudence and wisdom especially in difficult areas. We are very sorry to lose him."
Father Stackpoole had much more than a passing impact on those he met. "He was deeply loved by everyone who came in contact with him," Father Angilella said. "People are grateful to him in so many ways. He helped so many along the way."
Father Stackpoole was held in high regard throughout the Jesuit community, Father Angilella added, noting the priest "was often consulted" on the most important of issues and served as an advisor to the order's highest offices on many occasions.
Jesuit Father Stephen Privett, USF president and a concelebrant at Father Stackpoole's funeral Mass July 23 at St. Ignatius Church on the USF campus, called the late priest "a rock of the Jesuit community."
"When I came to the school," Father Privett told Catholic San Francisco, "Ed had just stepped down as rector of the Jesuit community after overseeing the transition of the community from living at Xavier Hall to Loyola House. It was more than a move of people and furniture and took us from an institutional housing to a more community - serving way of life, and I am a beneficiary of that."
Father Stackpoole, who held a postgraduate degree in English with a focus on Chaucer, was a jury member for the Commonwealth Club's annual awards for fiction and non - fiction. "Ed read hundreds of books and passed the best on to me - especially crime and adventure," Father Privett said. "Ed was a very gracious person."
Interment was at Santa Clara Mission Cemetery. Father Stackpoole is survived his sisters, Evelyn Rausch and Mary Elizabeth Knoblock, as well as numerous nieces, nephews and their families. Remembrances may be sent to the Jesuit Community, Loyola House, 2600 Turk Blvd., San Francisco 94118.
Jesuit Father Daniel Kendall, a close friend of Father Stackpoole and his family, was to be homilist at the funeral Mass. Jesuit Father Mario Prietto, rector/superior of the Jesuit community at USF, was to be main celebrant at the Mass.
