A Mass of Christian Burial for Father Walter T. Sidney, SJ, was to be celebrated April 29 in the chapel at De Smet Jesuit High School. Father Sidney died April 20 in St. Louis. He was 75 years old, a Jesuit for 56 years and a priest for 44 years.
Wally Sidney was born in St. Louis on Dec. 9, 1947, to Walter and Mary Jane Marshall Sidney. Following his graduation from St. Louis University High School, he entered the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) on Sept. 1, 1966, at St. Stanislaus Seminary in Florissant. He pronounced first vows on Sept. 2, 1968, and was ordained a priest at St. Francis Xavier “College” Church on June 17, 1978. He pronounced his final vows on Jan. 14, 1987, at St. John’s College in Belize City, Belize.
Father Sidney earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and a master’s degree in European history and American history, both from Saint Louis University. He studied theology at the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, earning a master of Divinity in 1978.
Father Sidney began his long career in secondary education at De Smet Jesuit in 1973. He taught English and history and was an assistant prefect. Following ordination, he spent a year at Ministry Training Services in Denver, and then returned to De Smet, where he was a teacher, counselor and director of pastoral programs from 1979-84. He was sent to St. John’s College in Belize in similar roles from 1985-87. From 1987-89, he served as rector and teacher at St. Louis University High School, then returned to St. John’s in Belize as superior and teacher from 1989-95.
He continued in high school ministry as president, first at Regis Jesuit High School in Aurora, Colorado, from 1995-2006, and then at De Smet Jesuit, from 2006-15.
In 2015, he moved to Dallas to be rector of the Dallas Jesuit Community. In 2021, he became rector at St. Charles College in Grand Coteau, Lousiana.
He was preceded in death by his parents. He is survived by his brother David (Mary) Sidney and his sister Jane (Jim) Normile, as well as by nieces and nephews.
Burial was to be in Calvary Cemetery.
