Judge, Robert K. (Father)

Jesuit Robert K. Judge, 82, died on August 30, 2014, at St. Claude la Colombiere Jesuit Residence in Baltimore. He was a Jesuit for 62 years.

Judge, son of Robert Judge and Florence Kimmel, was born on August 20, 1932, in Baltimore. Following graduation from Loyola High School in Towson, Maryland, in 1950 and two years of study at Loyola University, he entered the Society of Jesus on September 7, 1952, at the Novitiate of St. Isaac Jogues in Wernersville, Pennsylvania, and pronounced his First Vows there on September 8, 1954. After pursuing Juniorate (College) studies in the humanities for two years at Wernersville, he was sent to Loyola Seminary (Fordham University) in Shrub Oak, New York, where he studied philosophy from 1956 to 1959 and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1958 and a Master of Arts degree in education in 1961.

As a Jesuit scholastic, Judge held the positions of Assistant Director of Student Personnel and Resident Director of freshmen at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., from 1959 to 1962 and then studied theology (1962-1966) at Woodstock College in Woodstock, Maryland, where he was ordained to the priesthood by the Most Rev. Lawrence J. Shehan, Archbishop of Baltimore, on June 12, 1965, and received a Bachelor of Sacred Theology degree in 1966. He completed tertianship at the Jesuit Martyrs Shrine in Auriesville, New York, in 1967 and pronounced his Final Vows in the Society of Jesus on February 2, 1968, at Boston College.

In 1968, Judge began his priestly ministry as Assistant Dean of Students at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. The following year, he was appointed Dean of Men and Associate Dean of Students (1969-1975) at Georgetown University and then served as Associate Campus Minister (1975-1976) at Loyola University New Orleans and the following year as pastor and campus minister at Mars Hill and the University of North Carolina in Hot Springs (1976-1977).

After an internship in retreat giving at the Novitiate of St. Isaac Jogues from 1977 to 1978, Judge received the assignment as Director of the Spiritual Exercises at Manresa-on-Servern Retreat House in Annapolis, Maryland, from 1978 until 1980, when he became campus minister at Shepherd College and administrator and pastor at St. Agnes Mission/St. James Church and pastor of St. Agnes Church in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, from 1980-1993.

Following a sabbatical year at Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, he served as pastor of Sacred Heart Church in Covington, Virginia (1994-1995); campus minister at Loyola University Maryland (1995-1998); pastor of St. Jude Church in Radford, Virginia (1998-2002); and pastor of St. Joseph Church and St. Bernadette Mission in Hedgesville, West Virginia (2002-2007).

After spending a year in residence at the Jesuit Center in Wernersville, he was transferred to the Colombiere Jesuit Community in Baltimore, where he cared for his failing health until his death in August 2014.