CHICAGO (July 26, 2004)

Fr. Walter Francis Somerville, a retired priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago, died Monday, July 19, of a stroke in Tuscon, AZ., where he lived since 1992. He was 77 years old and was retired from active ministry since 1997.

Fr. Somerville was a native Chicagoan whose 51 years of service included work as a chaplain for the Knights of Columbus and a moderator of Catholic scouting. He attended Loyola Academy in Wilmette for three years before entering Quigley Preparatory Seminary in 1945. Samuel Cardinal Stritch ordained Fr. Somerville in 1953, following his philosophy and theology studies at the University of St. Mary of the Lake Seminary in Mundelein.

For 13 years, beginning in 1953, Fr. Somerville was the assistant pastor at St. Mary of the Woods Parish in northern Cook county. He was assistant pastor at St. Mary Parish in Evanston and Our Lady of the Wayside in Arlington Heights for nine years and six years respectively before being named pastor of St. Edna in Arlington Heights in 1981.

For seven years, from 1985 to 1992, Fr. Somerville was associate pastor of St. Isaac Jogues Parish in Niles. He retired in 1997 following a lengthy medical leave.

Visitation for Fr. Somerville will take place on Thursday, July 29, from 3 to 9 p.m. at St. Isaac Jogues Church, 8149 W. Golf Rd., Niles. Bishop Timothy Lyne, Vicar for Retired Priests, will be the main celebrant at a funeral Mass for Fr. Somerville on Friday, July 30, at 11 a.m. at St. Isaac Jogues. Interment will be at All Saints Cemetery in Des Plaines.