Rev. Robert E. McCarty, SJ, was born in Minetto, NY, on March 26, 1935. In 1932 Bob’s parents and his two elder brothers moved from their home in Brooklyn’s Bay Ridge to upstate New York; a move necessitated by his father’s job. They settled in the small town of Minetto which is about five miles southeast of Oswego. It was there that Bob and his twin sister, Alice, were born. When the time came, they attended Minetto Union School there, and then went on to Oswego High School (1949-53).
After high school graduation in 1953, Bob and Alice both went to Le Moyne College in Syracuse, NY, just a hop, skip and a jump from Minetto. Bob was very impressed with the Jesuits at Le Moyne, and he remembered well his father’s esteem for the Jesuits at Brooklyn Prep where he went to High School. It was then after only one year at Le Moyne (1953-54) that Bob left his sister behind and entered the Society of Jesus at St. Andrew-on-Hudson, Poughkeepsie, NY. After only one year at St. Andrew’s (1954-55) Bob was part of the group of novices and juniors who made the move (really upstate) to the Buffalo Province’s newly established novitiate at Bellarmine College in Plattsburgh, NY. There Bob completed his second year of novitiate and two years of juniorate (1955-58).
From Plattsburgh Bob moved, as most scholastics did in those days, to Loyola Seminary in Shrub Oak, NY, for three years of philosophy studies (1958-61). In 1961 he began a three-year regency assignment (1961-64) at McQuaid Jesuit High School in Rochester, NY, where he taught Latin, English and Speech. From regency Bob headed, in 1964, to Woodstock College in Maryland for a Jesuit’s usual four years of theology (1964-68). In June of 1967, he was ordained a priest at Canisius College in Buffalo.
After theology Bob spent a year at Murray-Weigel Hall (1968-69) where he was able to complete a Master’s degree in English he had been working on at Fordham University. Then with one year (1969-70) teaching English Literature and Latin at Regis High School in New York City, Bob was ready for doctoral studies. So in 1970 he headed back to Le Moyne in Syracuse, where the seeds of his Jesuit vocation were first planted. There for the next six years (1970-76) he lived at the Le Moyne Jesuit community, taught a course in English Literature each year at Le Moyne College and immersed himself in doctoral studies at Syracuse University, where in 1976 he was awarded a Ph.D. in English/Humanities.
Doctorate in hand, Bob was sent in 1976 to teach English literature at St. Peter’s College in Jersey City, NJ, where he did so with extraordinary competence and dedication for the next 41 years (1976-2017). As he was about to retire in 2017, the now St. Peter’s University put on an exhibit titled “Dr. Robert McCarty, S.J., a ‘Life in Books and Letters’” honoring Fr. McCarty’s four-plus decades of teaching and spiritual counseling at Saint Peter’s. The display highlighted books and authors Fr. McCarty loved to teach and read. The introduction explaining the exhibit concluded, “The English Department is so very excited to help present this display in honor of our beloved colleague whose unwavering care for his students, friends and all the academic and religious communities with whom he engages, serves as a constant reminder that we all can and should be people in service to others.” That pretty much says it all.
In 2017 Bob moved back to Murray-Weigel Hall, now the Jesuit health care facility in the Bronx, and although his assignment was to “pray for the Church and the Society,” he very much continued to be a man in service to others. His short homilies at Mass (which he always preferred to deliver before the gospel) were insightful. He ran a seminar for several of his fellow Jesuit retirees highlighting those books and authors he loved to read. He distributed the mail faithfully every day and sorted out the daily newspapers. There was a lovely gleam in his eyes when he thought he may have won the week’s football pool.
Suddenly and unexpectedly, a severe stroke interrupted his still busy life of service to his fellow Jesuits, and he died on November 25, 2025. His loss to us is surely a gain for the Communion of Saints.
Click here to light a Virtual Candle in memoriam of the life and legacy of Fr. Robert McCarty, SJ.
