Fr. O.P.

MADISON- Jerome Walsh was born on April 10, 1932, to Leonard and Margaret Walsh in Durand, Illinois, 100 miles northwest of Chicago. After two years at Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa, he made his first profession in the Dominican Order on August 31, 1952, receiving the religious name Matthias. He attended the College of St. Thomas Aquinas in River Forest, Illinois from 1952-53 and 1954-55, receiving a B.A. in philosophy. After three years of theological studies at the Studium of St. Rose of Lima in Dubuque he was ordained a priest, receiving the following year an advanced degree in theology.
From 1959-76, Walsh worked in various Dominican ministries in Nigeria, West Africa. He was Vicar General of the Diocese of Sokoto, Nigeria, and pastor for parishes like St. Vincent Ferrer in Malumfashi and Our Lady of Fatima in Gusau. In the 1970s he was Lecturer at the Dominican Seminary of Sts. Peter & Paul in Ibadan, Nigeria. He helped to found the Dominican province now existing in Nigeria, serving as its Vocation Director and Novice Master.
When he returned to the United States in 1976, Walsh preached for several years parish missions in the Midwest and worked in campus ministry. He then returned overseas, working for several years in Papua New Guinea in ministries sponsored by the Australian Dominican Province. In his concluding years of service, he was the Vocation Director and Novice Master for his Province as well as the Director of the Dominican Shrine of St. Jude Thaddeus and Vicar for Mission Advancement. Walsh was assigned in 2005 to limited service for the Madison area, residing at Blessed Sacrament Priory where he lived for eight years before he was diagnosed with cancer. Walsh died on November 3, 2013.
The Mass of Christian Burial will be held on Thursday, November 7, 2013 at 11:00 a.m. at Blessed Sacrament Roman Catholic Church, 2115 Rowley Street, Madison. A visitation will be held on Wednesday, November 6, 2013 from 4 to 7 p.m. at Blessed Sacrament Roman Catholic Church.
Walsh is survived by his brother Jim and sister-in-law Barb Walsh, of Beloit, Wisconsin, by numerous nieces and nephews and their children, and by many cousins. Memorials can be sent to Dominican Friars, Central Province, 2005 South Ashland Ave., Chicago, IL 60608.