Jesuit Father Robert Hamm dies at 88

Jesuit Father Robert E. Hamm died Oct. 25 at Manresa Hall in Merion Station, Pa. He was 88, a Jesuit for 70 years and a priest for 57 years.

Born in Williamsport, Pa, Father Hamm entered the Society of Jesus at the Novitiate of St. Isaac Jogues in Wernersville, Pa, in 1955. He studied philosophy at Loyola Seminary in Shrub Oak, New York, earning a bachelor’s degree in 1961, followed by a master’s degree in English from Fordham University in 1963. After teaching English and Latin at Scranton Preparatory School, he began theology studies at Woodstock College in Maryland, where he received a bachelor’s degree in theology and a master’s degree in 1969. He was ordained to the priesthood there June 15, 1968.

In the Archdiocese of Baltimore, Father Hamm taught religion and English at Loyola Blakefield in Towson (1979-84) and served in pastoral ministry at St. Ignatius in Baltimore (2011-15). In his later years, he was a spiritual director and pastoral minister while residing at the St. Claude La Colombière Jesuit Community in Baltimore, continuing that ministry after moving to Manresa Hall in 2022. Elsewhere, he served in Pennsylvania and Nigeria, where he directed retreats and the Spiritual Exercises for more than two decades.

Funeral arrangements were private.

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