February 10, 2010

Ralph McInerny, retired professor-author, dies at 80

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (CNS)—Ralph McInerny, a retired University of Notre Dame professor and prominent Catholic author, perhaps best known for writing the Father Dowling mystery series, died Jan. 29 of complications from esophageal cancer at Our Lady of Peace Hospital in Mishawaka. He was 80. A funeral Mass was celebrated Feb. 1 at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart at Notre Dame followed by burial at Notre Dame’s Cedar Grove Cemetery.

McInerny, a Notre Dame professor from 1955 until he retired last June, was the Michael P. Grace professor of medieval studies and a professor of philosophy. For many years, he directed Notre Dame’s Medieval Institute and the university’s Jacques Maritain Center. McInerny, a Minneapolis native, held degrees from the St. Paul Seminary in Minnesota, the University of Minnesota and Laval University in Quebec. An expert in the work of St. Thomas Aquinas and philosophers Maritain and Soren Kierkegaard, McInerny wrote and lectured extensively about ethics, philosophy of religion, and medieval philosophy.