- Sr. Thea Bowman, who died on this date in 1990
Jon Hassler was a contemporary Catholic novelist, whose fictional characters were often Catholics or lapsed Catholics struggling to find purposes in life.
Born on this day in 1933, Hassler grew up in small-town Minnesota, and received his bachelor's degree from St. John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota, in 1955. For 10 years, he taught high school before moving to college teaching. He eventually returned to St. John's University where he became writer-in-residence from 1980 until his retirement in 1997. St. John's gave him the Coman Barry Award for Distinguished Contributions to Religion and Society in 2003. He had been scheduled to receive the Campion Award from the Jesuit magazine, "America," prior to his death.
In 1994, he was diagnosed with a degenerative type of palsy (similar to Parkinson's disease). Despite vision and speech problems, and difficulty walking, he continued to write.
He died March 20, 2008; his funeral Mass was held at the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis.
- Little Black Book, Diocese of Saginaw