NEW Utas fall - Saint Louis University

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of the world’s most influential thinkers
died Aug. 12. Saint Louis University
professor and internationally renowned
scholar Walter J. Ong, S.J., was 90.
Published more than 400 times
around the world, Father Ong taught
and lectured at many of the world’s
most prestigious institutions during his
career at SLU.
His work is presented alongside history’s
most illustrious postmodern theorists.
Father Ong’s ideas have been used to
analyze the oratory skills of Martin
Luther King Jr. and to study New York
subway graffiti. Entire college courses
have been developed around his theories.
“We have lost one of Saint Louis
University’s, indeed higher education’s,
greatest treasures,” said University
President Lawrence Biondi, S.J.
Born Nov. 30, 1912, in Kansas City,
Saint Louis University mourns the loss
of one of its greatest scholars.
Mo., Father Ong was the elder of two
sons. He graduated from high school at
16 before majoring in Latin at
Rockhurst College, where he received a
bachelor of arts degree.
He worked in printing and publishing
prior to entering the Society of Jesus in
1935. He was ordained a Catholic priest
in 1946. Father Ong earned a master’s
degree in English at Saint Louis
University. His thesis was supervised by
communication theorist Marshall
McLuhan, who was quoting his former
student by the time McLuhan wrote his
classic, The Gutenberg Galaxy. Ong also
earned a licentiate in philosophy and a
licentiate in sacred theology from SLU.
After earning his doctorate in English
at Harvard University in 1955, Father
Ong returned to SLU, where he would
teach for the next 36 years. Prior to his
appointment as University Professor of
Humanities, Father Ong was the
William E. Haren Professor of English
and professor of humanities in psychiatry
at the School of Medicine.
Centering his life in the Midwest,
however, didn’t stop Father Ong from
traveling — and influencing — the
world. His books have been translated
into numerous languages, and his scholarship
has been cited in more than 2,000
works. The French government decorated
him for his scholarly work, and he
was a visiting lecturer at many of the
world’s finest institutions, including
Oxford University. From Japan to
Nigeria, Father Ong gave special talks all
around the globe.
Father Ong authored numerous
books, including the widely circulated
Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of
the Word, published in 1982 and translated
into a dozen languages. As Father
Ong’s fame grew, prestigious national
organizations sought out his expertise.