by The Cowl Editor on November 29, 2018

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Features

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by Taylor Godfrey ’19

Editor-in-Chief

The Providence College community mourns the loss of Rev. Thomas Jordan Ertle, O.P., who passed away on Friday, November 23 at his home in New Jersey. 

Father Ertle graduated from PC with a Bachelor’s Degree in 1953 before joining the Dominican order in 1956. He received a Master’s Degree from PC in 1978 and the next year he became the College chaplain, serving in both that position as well as others in campus ministry until 1984. 

He returned to the College in 1998, serving until his health began to decline in 2015. 

He received multiple awards from PC, including the PC Alumni Association’s Bishop Harkins Award in 1991 and the PC School of Continuing Education Spirit of Giving Award in 2004. 

Father Ertle was an important member of the PC community and beyond. Fluent in American Sign Language, he worked with the deaf community in Providence and he served as a source of guidance and faith on campus. 

His wake was held in the Chapel of Our Lady of the Rosary in the Aquinas Priory on Wednesday, November 28, and his funeral mass was held in St. Dominic Chapel today. He will be laid to rest on the PC campus in the Dominican Friars’ Cemetery. 

Father Ertle will be greatly missed by the PC community both on and off campus.