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Father Joseph A. Latella, S.J., who served for many years at Xavier High School and Xavier Society for the Blind, both in Manhattan, died May 9 at the Jesuits’ St. Ignatius Loyola Community in Manhattan, where he resided. He was 80.
At the high school he was a teacher and moderator of alumni relations, 1968-1988. For the past 10 years he was assistant for development at Xavier Society for the Blind.
He was deputy director of the Catholic Medical Mission Board, Manhattan, 1994-1996. He did pastoral work at Our Saviour Church, Manhattan, 1989-1991.
Born in Brooklyn, he entered the Jesuits in Poughkeepsie in 1945 and professed vows in 1947. He studied at Bellarmine College in Plattsburgh and Woodstock College in Maryland. He was ordained at Fordham University Church in 1958.
He is survived by a sister, Gloria Lafferty.
A Funeral Mass was offered May 15 at St. Ignatius Loyola Church in Manhattan, with burial at the Jesuit Cemetery in Auriesville.
