Alumnus Rev. Thomas Richard Heath, OP '43 remembered
A Funeral Mass was offered Jan. 18 at St. Theresa's Cathedral in Kibuye, Kenya, for Rev. Thomas Richard Heath, OP '43, who as a Boston College student evoked "tower, bell and tree" in the beloved BC poem "Proud Refrain," and who won renown as a preacher and teacher during years as a Dominican missionary in Africa.
Fr. Heath died of injuries suffered when he was beaten in a robbery earlier this month at his religious house in Kisumu, northwest of Nairobi. He was 84.
He had served 13 years in Kenya, after 10 years in South Africa and Lesotho, and was remembered as a mentor to generations of young priests.
"Fr Thomas was a faithful servant of God," Rev. Benedict Croell, OP, a brother missionary friar in Kenya, told the Vatican agency Fides.
"Men and women, religious and laity, looked to him as the wisest of counselors in their spiritual journey. His own Dominican brothers venerated him as an outstanding example of fidelity in their contemplative way of life, and a most joyful and compassionate member of their community."
At Boston College, a poem Fr. Heath wrote as an undergraduate in the early 1940s has become a treasured part of campus lore. The poem, "Proud Refrain," written for the BC literary magazine The Stylus, poignantly captured the sentiments of many a young BC man heading off to the Second World War:
What are you dreaming, soldier,
What is it you see?
A tall gray Gothic tower,
And a linden tree.
You speak so sadly, soldier,
Sad and wistfully . . .
I cannot hear the tower bell
In the swirling sea.
What meaning has it, soldier,
A tower, bell, and tree?
Nothing, nothing - only once
It meant my life to me.
Thomas Heath, a Somerville native, was born on June 19, 1920, and was a 1943 graduate of Boston College. He made his religious profession on May 28, 1944, and was ordained a priest June 10, 1950.
He was one of three brothers who became Dominican priests.
"He was a wonderfully likeable guy," recalled Rev. Joseph Nolan '42, of Newton, a BC classmate who was active with Fr. Heath on The Stylus. "He had a lovely, lyrical gift for poetry."
Fr. Nolan corresponded with him over the years, and recalled a note the friar had sent after being sent as a missionary to Africa.
"He wrote me and said, 'I'm going to live and die here. I'm going to spend the rest of my life here.'"
Fr. Heath had a niece in Winchester and on visits would offer Mass at St. Mary's Parish there, according to BC Adj. Assoc. Prof. Richard McGowan, SJ, who is attached to the Winchester parish.
Fr. McGowan recalled saying the 6:45 a.m. Mass with Fr. Heath when the Dominican was in town.
"It was interesting when he would come 'home,' because for him, home was Africa," said Fr. McGowan.
"He was a hard worker, very prayerful, and a credit to Boston College."
Fr. Heath was the second priest to be murdered in recent months in Kenya. In November, Rev. John Francis Hannon, 65, an Irish priest of the Society of African Missions, was murdered by a gang of robbers at the St. Barnabas Parish complex in Matasia, in the Diocese of Ngong, near Nairobi.
Fr. Heath died Jan. 13 in a Kisumu hospital after having been beaten during an armed robbery at his house on Jan. 4.
A vigil was held for him Jan. 17 at the Dominican Community of St. Martin de Porres in Mkendwa. He was buried in the Dominican Community's cemetery.
He leaves a brother in Washington, D.C., and a niece in Winchester, according to Fr. McGowan.
-- Material from Zenit News Agency and from Catholic World News was used in this report.