The University of St. Michael’s College community is remembering Fr. William Irwin CSB as a gifted professor, an inspiring homilist, and a man of extraordinary pastoral skills who cared deeply for his students.
Fr. Irwin, who died on Dec. 6 at the age of 91, was a biblical scholar who specialized in in the Book of Isaiah and the Book of Psalms. He taught at St. Michael’s Faculty of Theology for decades, serving as Dean of the Faculty from 1981-1985. From 2001-2004 he was President of Assumption University in Windsor, On.
Born in Houston, Texas, Fr. Irwin earned a BA and an MA from the University of Toronto and a Baccalaureate in Sacred Theology from St. Michael’s before going on to further studies at the Angelicum and the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome. Ordained a priest in 1959, he joined the Faculty in 1965 and continued teaching part-time into his 80s, well past his formal retirement date.
“Fr. Irwin is one more example of the tremendous debt St. Michael’s owes to the Basilian Fathers,” said Prof. Jaroslav Skira, Dean of the Regis St. Michael’s Faculty of Theology. “I am particularly grateful for his dedication as Dean of the Faculty of Theology, for his scholarship in the Hebrew Scriptures, and for helping educate numerous graduates–some of whom we count as members of the Regis St. Michael’s Faculty of Theology.”
In an address to the Faculty of Theology convocation in 1985, Fr. Irwin spoke to those assembled about the importance of balancing study with lived experience, noting that “the Gospel not only enlightens but transforms,” and urging all to become engaged with the world, using their gifts to teach a message of hope. It is a model his former students recall well.
Doctoral candidate Sr. Carla Thomas O.P. who studied the Psalms with Fr. Irwin, remembers him as “a kind and gentle instructor. Fr. Bill taught by his personal presence as much as by his lecture,” she said. “I was struck that in his retirement years he still continued to teach students, in spite of all the demands that it must necessarily have made on him in so many ways. I remember him telling us that his favorite psalm was Psalm 73, and that God does not punish. Rather, God leaves people to their own counsel.”
Long-time Faculty Professor John L. McLaughlin also studied under Fr. Irwin.
“Bill Irwin was my Doktorvater, directing my Ph.D. dissertation, later was my colleague, and in both roles I considered him my friend,” recalled McLaughlin. “Bill combined insightful biblical scholarship with a deep pastoral sensitivity, both inside the classroom and outside. He was one of the best, if not the best, homilist I have ever heard from a number of religious traditions. In his teaching he combined careful detailed scholarly treatment of biblical texts with the relevance of the results for the Church and the world.”
But, adds McLaughlin, Fr. Irwin “was also attentive to what students were going through. Partway through an individual Reading and Research course in the first year of my doctoral studies, I lamented that I was feeling run down, not sleeping and feeling overwhelmed, ending with ‘I don’t think I can handle a Ph.D.’ He responded that most students felt that way in the first year, then told me not to read anything new for our next meeting, just review what I had read, and told me to take at least one day and sleep. When I walked into his office two weeks later, before I could say anything he asked, “Did you sleep?” He truly cared as much for the person as he did for the project.”
In 2015, Fr. Irwin delivered the Meagher Lecture at St. Michael’s, offering a talk entitled Between Church and Theology: The St. Michael’s Faculty of Theology at 60, to mark the Faculty’s six decades of granting degrees.
He also touched the lives of students he had never taught by endowing scholarships for dozens of students in the Faculty.
Visitation will be held in the chapel of Presentation Manor, 61 Fairfax Cres. in Scarborough, on Friday, December 15 from 9:30 a.m.-10:30 a.m., with a funeral immediately following.