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Jesuit Father Richard McCaslin dies at age 79

      Jesuit Father Richard F. McCaslin, an Omaha native who served about four years in the archdiocese, died May 13. He was 79.

      A wake service was held May 20 and a memorial service May 21, both at St. Pius X Church in Omaha. Father McCaslin’s funeral Mass was May 15 at the St. Camillus Jesuit Community in Wauwatosa, Wis., where he died, and burial was May 16 at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Milwaukee.

      One of five priests in his family and the 12th of 13 children born to the late George and Elizabeth McCaslin, Father McCaslin attended Holy Angels Grade School and Creighton Preparatory School, both in Omaha, before entering the Society of Jesus in 1952.

      Ordained in June 1965, Father McCaslin taught theology for 20 years at Sogang University in Seoul, South Korea, and pronounced his final vows there in August 1973. After returning to the United States, he served as assistant to the provincial in Milwaukee from 1986 to 1989, director of the Jesuit Retreat House in Oshkosh, Wis., from 1989 to 2001 and superior of the Creighton Preparatory Jesuit community from 2001 to 2004.

      He worked in South Dakota from 2004 to 2010, living at the Sioux Spiritual Center in Howes and with the Jesuit community at Red Cloud Indian School on the Pine Ridge Reservation while helping direct the permanent diaconate and lay ministry programs of the Diocese of Rapid City, S.D.

      Due to declining health, Father McCaslin was assigned in 2010 to the St. Camillus Jesuit Community.

      Father McCaslin was preceded in death by his parents; brothers, Msgr. Edward, William, Thomas, Columban Father James and George; and sisters, Betty Burke and Rosemary McCaslin.

      Survivors include his sisters, Peg Dineen, and Sinsinawa Dominican Sister Claire; brothers and sister-in-law, Father John, Dr. Joseph  and Theresa, and Father Patrick, all of Omaha; nephews, nieces, great-nephews and great-nieces.

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