By Rebecca Goodman
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Father Isenecker

The Rev. Dr. Lawrence E. Isenecker, professor of mathematics at Xavier University for 33 years, died Sunday at Genesys Regional Medical Center in Grand Blanc, Mich. - a day after marking 60 years as a Jesuit.

The author of six higher-level math textbooks, Father Isenecker, 79, was a talented mathematician who read Latin, French, Greek, German and Italian.

His dedication and patience were useful in helping struggling students to develop math skills at Xavier, according to the Rev. Paul J. Clifford, pastoral minister at Colombiere Jesuit Center in Clarkston, Mich., who had known Father Isenecker since they entered the Jesuit novitiate together in 1943.

"Spike," as his Jesuit classmates called Father Isenecker, "loved telling jokes; but very often he'd be laughing so heartily that you couldn't even hear the punch line."

The Rev. John P. Foley, president of Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Chicago, remembered Father Isenecker as a "shy, but very kind Jesuit and teacher."

Foley was a student of Father Isenecker back when the latter taught at Loyola Academy in Chicago in the early 1950s. "He loved golf," Foley said. "In fact, I can remember him coming up to the North Shore to play golf with some of us who were students."

Father Isenecker was born in Cleveland in 1924 and grew up in Dayton, Ohio. He entered St. Gregory Seminary in Cincinnati in 1937. He earned a bachelor's degree in Latin from Xavier University in 1946 and a master's in mathematics at Catholic University in Washington in 1954.

He was ordained a priest at West Baden College in Indiana in 1957 and earned a Ph.D. in math from Catholic University in 1963.

In addition to Loyola Academy and Xavier University, Father Isenecker taught at Loyola University in Chicago.

He retired to Colombiere Center, where he was visited four years ago by the Rev. Robert E. Beckman.

According to Beckman, Father Isenecker said "people would come frequently to the Jesuit community wanting someone to talk to or to go to confession. He told the folks at the front door that he was always there and would be happy to speak to anybody.

"People came to him during those last few years in a steady flow. It was a quiet ministry. There was no fanfare. He was there on call to be with people in their needs, to hear their confessions, to give them inspiration. That's how he lived most of his life. He was very useful in a very quiet way."

Father Isenecker was a member of the American Mathematical Society, the Mathematical Association of America, Sigma Xi and Pi Mu Epsilon.

Survivors include a sister, Mary Ann Mauch of Dayton.

Mass of Christian burial is 10:45 a.m. today at Colombiere Jesuit Center, followed by burial in its cemetery.

Memorials: Jesuit International Missions or Jesuit Partnership, 2050 N. Sedgwick St., Chicago, Ill. 60614.

E-mail rgoodman@enquirer.com