Roide, Russell J. (Father)

Father Russell J. Roide, SJ, died peacefully in his sleep on April 13, 2021, at Sacred Heart Jesuit Center in Los Gatos, California. He was 82 years old. Fr. Roide’s Jesuit ministry spanned 60 years and included high school teaching and administration, university campus ministry, and parish and retreat work throughout the Western states and beyond.

Russell Joseph Roide was born in Los Angeles December 10, 1938, the son of Joseph R. Roide and Julia R. Cerniglia Roide. He graduated from Loyola High School of Los Angeles (1956) and Loyola [Marymount] University with a degree in biology (1960). He entered the Jesuit novitiate at Los Gatos in 1960, continuing his studies at Gonzaga University, Boston College and the Weston School of Theology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was ordained a priest in Los Angeles on June 13, 1970.

Fr. Roide taught at Bellarmine College Preparatory in San Jose, California (1965-1967, 1973-1975), where he also served as president in 1975, and at Loyola High School (1979-1980). He served in many capacities at St. Ignatius College Prep in San Francisco over the years: assistant principal for student affairs (1970-1972), rector-president (1975-1979) and member of the Adult Spirituality Team (2008). On the university level, he served as director of campus ministry at Stanford University (1984-1992) and director of the University Catholic Center at the University of Hawaii, Honolulu (2008-2011), and he held chaplaincies at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, and Gonzaga University in Florence, Italy.

He also served as pastor of St. Agnes Church in San Francisco (1994-2001) and St. Francis Xavier Church in Phoenix (2002-2006), and he did pastoral ministry in San Jose, Morgan Hill and at the Jesuit Retreat Center in Los Altos. Over several decades, Fr. Roide led dozens of pilgrimages to the Holy Land and religious sites in Europe and elsewhere.

Fr. Roide is survived by his brother, Frank Roide, of Carson City, Nevada, and many extended family members.

The funeral Mass will be on Monday, April 26 at 11:15 a.m. Due to COVID restrictions, the service will be private. To view Fr. Roide’s livestreamed funeral Mass, click here.