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Father J. Francis Stroud, S.J., executive director of the De Mello Spirituality Center at Fordham University in the Bronx, died June 28 at Our Lady of Mercy Medical Center there. He was 78.
He had been director of the De Mello center since 1990 except for brief periods as a visiting professor at Loyola Marymount University. He also was campus minister at Fordham University, 1983-1992. He spent a sabbatical at the Sadhana Institute, Poona, India, 1982-1983.
He taught Latin and English at Fordham Preparatory School in the Bronx, 1955-1958. Later he served at St. Peter’s Prep in Jersey City, N.J., where he taught religion, English and theology and was a counselor from 1963 to 1982, except for a sabbatical year of theology studies in London.
Born in Brooklyn, he entered the Jesuits in Poughkeepsie in 1948 and professed vows in 1950. He studied at Bellarmine College in Plattsburgh and Woodstock College in Maryland, and was ordained at Fordham University Church in 1961.
He is survived by a brother, Edward.
A Funeral Mass was celebrated July 2 at Fordham University Church, with burial at the Jesuit Cemetery in Auriesville.
