Submitted by: Dan Rich

Rev. James Leonard Shilts CSC

Oct. 9, 1925 – Aug. 16, 1982

South Bend Tribune 8/17/1982

Rev. James J. Shilts CSC, 56, assistant professor of physics and rector of Carroll Hall at the University of Notre Dame, died unexpectedly at 1:55 p.m. Monday in St. Joseph Medical Center after a brief illness. He was born Oct. 9, 1925, in South Bend and was a lifetime area resident. He was a graduate of St. Joseph Elementary School and South Bend Catholic High School. He entered Sacred Hear Novitiate, Rolling Prairie in 1944 and made his first profession of vows in the Congregation of Holy Cross, on Aug. 16, 1945. He graduated from Notre Dame in 1949. He then studied theology at Holy Cross College, Washington DC, and was ordained Jun 10, 1953 in Sacred Heart Church at Notre Dame. He taught in the department of physics at Notre Dame since 1953 and was assistant superior of Moreau Seminary from 1974 to 1979. In 1979 and 1980 he was on sabbatical leave, and taught at Kenya Science Teachers College in Nairobi, Kenya. He was a member of the American Physics Society, and the American Association of Physics Teachers.

He is survived by his father, Walter Shilts of South Bend; three sisters, Mrs. Edward (Margaret) Fleming of Rondo Beach, Calif., Mrs. Thomas (Mary Ann) Getzinger of Lakehead, Calif., and Mrs. Daniel (Martha E.) Phalen of Orange, Calif.; and two brothers, Joseph Shilts of Fairfield, Calif., and Thomas Shilts of South Bend; a step sister, Mrs. Robert (Carol) Goshert of South Bend.

Services will be at 10 a.m. Thursday in Sacred Heart Church at Notre Dame with burial in the Community Cemetery on the campus. Friends may call from 3:30p.m. Wednesday at the Moreau Seminary Chapel, where a wake service will be held at 7:30 p.m.