A funeral Mass for Jesuit Father Thaddeus Burch was offered June 3 at St. Camillus Jesuit Community in Wauwautosa, Wis.
Father Burch, a Baltimore native and physics professor at Marquette University, died May 14. He was 93.
Father Burch was a graduate of what is now Loyola Blakefield High School and entered the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus Aug. 15, 1948, at the Novitiate of St. Isaac Jogues in Wernersville, Pa. He was ordained a priest on June 18, 1961, at Woodstock College in Woodstock, Md., and pronounced final vows on Aug. 15, 1965, at what is now Loyola University Maryland in Baltimore.
He entered and remained a member of the Maryland (and later the USA East) Province, but ministered in the Wisconsin (later the USA Midwest) Province from 1976 until his death.
Father Burch earned a bachelor’s degree in physics (1954), a master’s degrees in education (1956) and physics (1967), and a doctorate in physics (1968) from Fordham University in the Bronx, N.Y. He also earned a licentiate in philosophy from Bellarmine College in Plattsburgh, N.Y. (1955) and a licentiate in sacred theology from Woodstock College in (1967).
He taught physics in Scranton, Pa., at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia and at the University of Connecticut before beginning a lengthy career at Marquette in Milwaukee. At Marquette, he also served as dean of the graduate school and director of special projects.
In 2016, Father Burch began residence at the St. Camillus Jesuit Community in Wauwautosa, Wis. His devotion to Marquette University continued until his death and, while he was living at St. Camillus, he continued to help Marquette University with special projects. When he could no longer drive from St. Camillus to Marquette University, Father Burch would take the bus.
He co-authored 43 articles and 21 abstracts on the use of nuclear magnetic resonance to study ferromagnetic materials and properties. He was university delegate to Argonne Universities Association 1977-1982. From 2000 to 2010, he was a member of the Medical College of Wisconsin’s institutional review board that regulates medical research for the college.
A scholarship in his name provides merit-based and need-based scholarships for students in Marquette University graduate programs.
Ever the scientist, Father Burch donated his body to the Medical College of Wisconsin.
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