Submitted by: Dan Rich

Rev. Theodore J. Mehling CSC

Auig. 23, 1906 – Nov. 13, 1961

South Bend Tribune 11/14/1961

Rev. Theodore J. Mehling CSC, 55, provincial superior of the Holy Cross Father Indian Province, died Monday in a Santiago, Chile, hospital. He became ill while making an official visit to St. George’s College in Santiago in October and underwent two intestinal operations at Clinica Santa Maria, Santiago. He was religious superior of more than 400 Holy Cross priests engaged principally in educational, parochial and missionary work in the United States and abroad. The Indiana Province operates the University of Notre Dame and other American schools and conducts missions and schools in East Pakistan, Uganda and Chile. Prior to becoming provincial superior, Father Mehling was president of the University of Portland in Oregon from 1945 to 1950. He served as dean of students at Portland for nine years before assuming the presidency.

From 1933 to 1937 he was assistant superior of Moreau Seminary on the Notre Dame campus and during the last two years of that period he was assistant head of the English Department at the University. He was born on Aug. 23, 1906  in Fremont, Ohio and entered Holy Cross Seminary at Notre Dame in 1922, beginning his year of novitiate in 1924. He made his final profession of vows vows in 1928 and was graduated from Notre Dame the following year. He completed four years of theological studies at Holy Cross College in Washington, DC. And was ordained to the priesthood June 24, 1933 in Sacred Heart Church, Notre Dame, by the late Archbishop John F. Noll of Fort Wayne. In 1935 he received a Master of Arts degree from Notre Dame.

Highlights of Father Mehling’s 11-year tenure as provincial superior include the construction of Moreau Seminary and Holy Cross House, a home for sick, aged and retired priests and the establishment of Sacred Heart Novitiate of Jordan, Minn. and Our Lady of Fatima Retreat House of Notre Dame. During the same period the Indiana Province opened Notre Dame High School for Boys in Niles, Mich. and Seminary Santa Cruz, in Santiago. The Province recently sent its first missionary priests to Uganda.

South Bend Tribune 11/15/1961 (Excerpts)

A solemn requiem mass will be offered at 10 a.m. Friday in Sacred Heart Church on the University of Notre Dame campus for Rev. Theodore J. Mehling CSC, provincial superior of the Holy Cross Fathers Indiana Province, who died Monday in a Santiago Chile hospital. Very Rev. Christopher O’Toole CSC, superior general of the Congregation of Holy Cross, will be the celebrant. Friends may call after 8 p.m. today in the faculty lounge in the Administration Building at the university. The office of the dead will be recited at 4:30 p.m. Thursday in Sacred Heart Church and burial will follow in the Community Cemetery.