In Memory
Aug. 7, 1927 - Feb. 5, 2019 ST. LOUIS, Mo. — Harold A. Teel, S.J., passed from this life on Feb. 5, 2019, at the Fusz Pavilion in St. Louis. He was 91 years of age and a Jesuit for 68 years. Born in Indianola, Neb., on Aug. 7, 1927, Harold had his grade school education at District 36, Frontier County, Neb., and St. Vincent’s Home, Denver, Colo., and his high school education at Havana High in Frontier County, Nebraska School of Agriculture in Curtis, Neb. He graduated from McCook Senior High in McCook, Neb. Following high school, he served in the Merchant Marine in the Colorado National Guard and studied at Regis College in Denver. After teaching elementary school for a year, he entered the Society on Aug. 17, 1950, at St. Stanislaus Seminary in Florissant, Mo. As a junior brother, he was a gardener at Florissant. He then served at St. Joseph’s Hall in Decatur, Ill., Sacred Heart Retreat House in Sedalia, Colo., and Rockhurst High in Kansas City, Mo. He completed his college education at Rockhurst University in Kansas City, earning a B.A. in Economics with minors in education, philosophy, and history (1970). He then was missioned to Belize, beginning as a teacher at St. John’s College, then moving to other tasks at the College. He saw a need in Yoro, Honduras, and spent four years there, doing pastoral work, becoming very invested with the people there, and helping organize the office work for the mission (1975-87). He returned to the USA to be minister at the novitiate. This new assignment carried a special appeal for him insofar as it promised the possibility of promoting brother vocations. In 1992, he returned to Belize, where he would remain for 20 years, working at Punta Gorda and the related missions. Harold had a way of connecting with those who had little education and were, in various ways, at the margins. He did a tremendous job in organizing and training the catechists in the villages around Punta Gorda. Whenever a priest was not there on a Sunday, the catechists had a liturgy for the people lasting about three hours. During that time, they read the Sunday Scriptures, preached a homily on the Scriptures, and then prayed with the villagers and sang a lot of songs. Harold also had “song days,” where several villages would come together for three days and sing all day. Harold would teach lessons on the Mass and on the Catholic faith during these days. The villagers loved these song days, and they helped Harold to really get to know the people. Harold’s work was a great benefit to the Church in the Toledo district. Harold is preceded in death by his parents, Oscar A. Teel and Martha Behnke Teel; his sisters, Celia McConville, Trudy Wagner, and Mary Alice Teel; and brothers, Lawrence, Ray, Robert, and Bro. Matthew Teel, C.M. He is survived by one sister, Kassie (Mrs. Dave Uerling). Condolences can be sent to Mrs. Kassie Uerling, St. Simeon’s, Room 209, 3701 Martin Luther King, Tulsa, OK 74106. Arrangements were as follows: Visitation was Monday, Feb. 11, 2019, Community Chapel, 15th floor, Jesuit Hall, St. Louis, Mo. Funeral Mass was Monday, Feb. 11, 2019, Community Chapel, 15th floor, Jesuit Hall Burial was Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2019, Calvary Cemetery, 9 a.m. We remember with gratitude all that God has done through Harold’s life of service to God and God’s people. All members of the USA Central and Southern Province are to offer a Mass for him. Members of the Jesuit Hall community are to offer an additional Mass as well.
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