Father Kenneth J. Caufield, S.J.

Father Kenneth J. Caufield, S.J., a former rector of the Jesuit House of Studies in the Bronx, and a teacher and student counselor at Jesuit high schools in the archdiocese, died March 24 at Murray-Weigel Hall, the Jesuit infirmary in the Bronx. He was 77.

He taught in Manhattan at Xavier High School, 1969-1977, and Regis High School, 1981-1984, where he was faculty chaplain, 2000-2007. He was student counselor at Fordham Prep, the Bronx, 1994-1996. He also taught at Jesuit high schools in New Jersey.

He served as rector of the Jesuit House of Studies in the Bronx, 1996-1999. He was the director of formation for the New York Province, 1988-1994, and assistant to the director of novices at the Jesuit Novitiate in Syracuse, 1985-1988.

While in residence at the Jesuit community at East 83rd Street in Manhattan, 2007-2011, he continued counseling, directing and sharing the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola with numerous Jesuits, women religious and laity.

In 2011, due to declining health, he was sent to Murray-Weigel Hall.

Born in Brooklyn, he entered the Society of Jesus at St. Andrew-on-Hudson, Poughkeepsie, in 1954. He was ordained in 1967 at the Fordham University Church in the Bronx.

He earned a master’s degree in counseling from New York University as well as master’s and bachelor’s degrees in sacred theology from Woodstock College in Woodstock, Md. He also studied philosophy at Loyola Seminary in Shrub Oak.

A Funeral Mass was offered at the Fordham University Church March 29. Burial was at the Jesuit Cemetery in Auriesville.