Richard E. Hadel

A Memorial Mass will be celebrated in the chapel of St. Ignatius Hall, the Jesuit Community at Garden Villas North, in Florissant, Missouri, at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, September 12, 2026. It will be livestreamed at jesuits.family/hadel-memorial. Father Hadel donated his body to the Saint Louis University School of Medicine.

Dick Hadel was born Aug. 24, 1935, in Kansas City, Kansas. His parents, William C. and Julia S. (Seve) Hadel, had him baptized at St. Francis Xavier Church, a Jesuit parish. He later attended the same parish’s grade school, and Rockhurst High School, a Jesuit school. When he was a senior, he told one of the priests he wanted to be a Jesuit. He entered the Society of Jesus on Aug. 17, 1952, one week shy of his 17th birthday. He was known to comment, “I grew up in the Society. It wasn’t a bad place to grow up.”

He professed first vows on Aug. 22, 1954, and was ordained a priest June 9, 1965. His death on August 16, 2026, fell the day before his 74th anniversary as a Jesuit and eight days before his 91st birthday.

In addition to his parents, Fr. Hadel was predeceased by his brother, William J. Hadel. He is survived by his sister, Judy Reichmeier.

Father Hadel’s first assignment as a Jesuit in formation was at St. John’s College (SJC) in Belize City, Belize, where he taught English and Latin. Following his ordination and graduate studies in anthropology, he returned to St. John’s College in 1972 and taught anthropology until 1975, when he took a brief sabbatical. He returned to SJC again in 1976 and remained for five years, teaching religion and serving in administrative positions for the Jesuit community.

While in Belize, Fr Hadel grew to love and respect the people and the culture. He learned Garifuna while living in a Carib village. With the blessing of the bishop, he celebrated Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve in Garifuna. It was the first time the people of the village had ever heard the Mass in their own language. “A woman stopped after Mass and told me in Carib, ‘It went to my heart,’” Fr. Hadel recalled some 40 years later. “I will never forget that.”

Some years earlier, Fr. John Stochl, SJ, had begun work on a Garifuna dictionary; Fr. Hadel took up that work and expanded the dictionary to be more comprehensive. It was the first known Garifuna dictionary.

Father Hadel returned to the United States in 1981. After a yearlong sabbatical at Creighton University, he was assigned to serve at White House Jesuit Retreat and Fusz Memorial (for Jesuits in formation), before being assigned in 1986 to teach English at De Smet Jesuit High School, where he also served as the Jesuit rector (community superior). In 1993, he was assigned to St. Louis University High School as superior and teacher. He served at SLUH for 12 years, until 2005.

He served as sacramental minister at St. Cecilia Parish in St. Louis, from 2005 to 2008, when he returned to SLUH for a brief time.

In 2008, Fr. Hadel returned to White House Jesuit Retreat as a retreat and spiritual director, and remained until 2015, when he began pastoral ministry. He was assigned to a ministry of prayer in 2023.

“As I near the end of my life, I’m looking back,” Fr. Hadel said in 2022. “I see a thread running through the whole thing: people have loved me, and it’s a reflection of God’s love. I see the work of God in my life like a symphony, and I am very grateful. Gratitude. That’s the theme that runs through my life.”

Father Hadel’s friends remember him with fondness as a good companion, unfailingly kind, the glue that held people together. He would often greet his brother Jesuits with, “Are you happy in your vocation?” He found God in all things, and in his later years he loved to sit on his balcony watching the hummingbirds at the feeder. He took his vow of poverty seriously; he lived simply and was generous in sharing what little he had.

Father Hadel attended seminary at St. Stanislaus in Florissant, Missouri, before completing a bachelor’s degree in philosophy, a master’s in Latin and Greek, and a licentiate in philosophy at Saint Louis University. He earned a licentiate in sacred theology at St. Mary’s College in St. Marys, Kansas, and a doctorate in anthropology at the University of Texas in Austin.

As we thank God for a life of service, humility and kindness, let us remember Fr. Hadel in our prayers.

Memorial gifts may be made to the Jesuits USA Central and Southern Province. They can be mailed to 4511 West Pine Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63108. Donate online at www.JesuitsCentralSouthern.org.