| In Memoriam: Edward A. Reese, S.J. 1942-2025
Edward Reese, S.J., St. Ignatius College Preparatory’s 31st president, died Aug. 2, 2025, at the Sacred Heart Jesuit Center in Los Gatos after a brief illness. He was 82.
In his nine years as the school’s president, he launched the Fr. Sauer Academy — a full-scholarship middle school for underserved students — and spearheaded the construction of the New Learning Commons, which broke ground in December of 2024. That facility, coupled with his leadership and expertise, secures SI’s future. Eddie’s vision was for the school to be responsive to changing styles of education while still deeply rooted in Ignatian spirituality and Jesuit traditions.
Born in Alhambra, California, on Oct. 2, 1942, to James B. Reese and Gwendolen Marie McNeal, Fr. Reese grew up with three siblings: Jim, Thomas, and Jill. He is preceded in death by Jim and Jill. Thomas Reese, S.J. is a prominent writer, editor, and scholar.
His mother was an algebra teacher and dean of girls at Alhambra High School. His father, a California Superior Court judge for Los Angeles County, taught him the value of loyalty and integrity. “When I was in sixth grade, my aunt bought BB guns for my brother and me,” he said in a 2016 interview. “My dad didn’t like the idea of us having guns, but kids had guns in those days, so he tolerated it. Soon after, we both were shooting at a bait tank on the porch of our beach house. I shot, and a bullet ricocheted, hit a plate glass window, and made a little hole in it. My father was furious. He stormed out and demanded to know who did it. My brother and I just stood there, both holding our guns. My brother didn’t say a thing. I could see my dad recognize that these two brothers were going to stick together. The loyalty we showed to each other at that moment was more important to him than finding out who did it. He took our guns away but didn’t push us to confess.”
As a student at Loyola High School in Los Angeles, he performed in plays and musicals. During his senior retreat at Loyola, he made the decision to become a Jesuit priest. “What impressed me among the Jesuits at Loyola was that they seemed to like each other, have fun and have a sense of community,” he said.
He studied at Mount St. Michael seminary in Spokane before being sent to teach at Loyola in 1968 in the same classroom where he had spent his sophomore year. “That’s where I fell in love with teaching,” he added. He also coached football and taught choral music and English. “I managed to stay a chapter ahead of the kids in my first year,” he noted.
He studied theology at the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley in 1970 and was ordained in 1973 at St. Jerome’s Church in Southern California. In his first assignment as a priest, he returned to Loyola, where he served as director of boarding and as a campus minister before becoming assistant principal. Over the years, he taught English, European history, and various religion classes before advancing his studies at Fordham University.
At Bellarmine College Preparatory in San José, where he first served as an assistant principal, he saw a computer sitting on the desk of the principal. “He told me that the school didn’t know what to do with it, so I started playing with it,” Fr. Reese remembered. Later, as Bellarmine’s principal, he helped the school become a beta test site for Silicon Valley companies.
He spent three years in Sydney, Australia, at St. Ignatius Riverview before moving to Jesuit High School in Carmichael, California. He became president at Brophy High School in Phoenix in 1996, where he served for 20 years, raising more than $85 million, doubling the campus footprint, establishing Brophy as the first high school in Arizona with one-to-one computing, developing highly competitive faculty salaries and benefits, and quadrupling the student financial aid budget.
In 2010, he created the Loyola Academy at Brophy, providing tuition-free education to sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students coming from underserved student populations in Phoenix — a model for the Fr. Sauer Academy, which Fr. Reese announced at SI in 2016. He also spearheaded the construction of several new facilities in Phoenix, including the Eller Center for the Arts, the Piper Science and Math Center, the Harper Great Hall, the Aquatic Center, and the Brophy Sports Campus. He also broke ground on the Fr. Harry T. Olivier, S.J., Practice Gymnasium.
After arriving at SI in 2016, he earned a reputation among students for kindness, joy, and his commitment to their well-being. The owner of Roger, a black labrador retriever who was trained as a canine companion for the disabled, and Ginger, a beloved goldendoodle with a distinctive bark, Fr. Reese would walk the halls of the school, holding the dogs’ leashes, encountering students who found comfort greeting both their President and his dogs.
Fr. Reese also became known to a national audience when the McCain family asked him to preside over the funeral services for Senator John McCain, who passed away on Aug. 25, 2018 — a service that was televised nationally.
For the past several years at SI, Fr. Reese drove the planning and execution of the New Learning Commons: 165,000 square feet of flexible, sustainable space that will define Jesuit education in San Francisco for the next century. His vision and leadership successfully put the school on the path toward raising the $200 million needed to build the facility.
In July, he took a leave of absence as SI’s president after a cancer diagnosis.
Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord,
and let Your perpetual light shine upon him.
May his soul rest in peace.
A funeral Mass celebrating the life of Fr. Reese will be Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2025, at 10 a.m. at St. Ignatius Parish Church, 650 Parker Avenue, San Francisco, CA, 94118. A reception will follow.
Please keep the SI community in your prayers as it continues to advance Fr. Reese’s vision for the future of the school. If you would like to honor the life of Fr. Reese through a meaningful contribution, please follow this link and choose where you would like your gift to make the most impact.
|
I was very close to Father Reese on Aug.14, 1993. Father Reese performed the marriage of my wife and me at Mission Santa Clara, under the watchful eye of my bestman, Ron Webster. While I was visiting Ron and Cindy Webster on our 30th wedding anniversary, Ron had made arrangements for Father Reese to call and wish my wife, Tam, and me a happy anniversary. This man was a Godsend; may he rest in peace.
Father Reese was a very good guy with a great sense of humor. I first met him in about 1990 while working swing shift Beat Sam 1 which included Bellarmine Prep. I had gotten a call at about midnight of a burglar alarm going off at Bellarmine, was advised of the specific location on campus, and that the RP would be standing by for my arrival. I wasn’t familiar with the school layout and sarcastically told the dispatcher to have the RP stand in the street and wave me down with his obnoxious flashlight. Ed Reese was the PR and flagged me down while holding a police scanner the boys at Bellarmine had gotten him for Christmas. He’d heard my “somewhat unprofessional” radio behavior but never mentioned it. For the next year, Ed would ride along with the District Sam Sgt, Fred Reid. I think it was Fred who recruited Ed for one of the SJPD Chaplain positions.
In August 1993, Bob Lobach was getting married to Tam, a graduate of the University of Santa Clara, and the wedding was being held at the mission there with Ed performing the ceremony. I was Bob’s ‘Best Man’ and the rehearsal was held on the Thursday evening prior to the wedding. Dinner after the rehearsal was at Henry’s Hi Life near downtown. As the participants began to arrive at Henry’s, I was standing at the bar as Ed walked up. I asked if I could buy him a soft drink and he responded, “Make it a double Jack and Coke”!
When Ed was leaving Bellarmine, Bob and I, along with Chaplain Dave Bridgen and our wives, were invited to Ed’s farewell dinner held at Bellarmine where that entire community came out in force to wish him well in his next journey. In August 2018, Bob & Tam came here to Tucson to celebrate their 25th anniversary. I contacted Ed in advance and asked him to call my house at 9am on the date of their anniversary and he did so. When the phone rang, I handed it to Bob and he had a nice celebratory conversation with Ed.
RIP Father Reese, you’ve earned it.
I knew Father Reese well as I worked pay jobs at Bellarmine for numerous years back in the 90’s and always thought of him as a gracious, wonderful man. Always upbeat and positive and will be sorely missed.