Rev. Thomas Stephen Prout, S.J., one of the five children born to Francis Prout and Tomiyo (Tomita) Prout, died on Sunday morning, December 22, 2024, at the Terence Cardinal Cooke Health Care Center in New York City. He was 66 years old.
Tom was born in New York City on April 25, 1958, and was baptized at the Jesuit Church of Saint Ignatius Loyola on Park Avenue. For high school, Tom attended The Browning School on the Upper East Side of Manhattan (1972-76), and from there he went on to Hamilton College in Clinton, NY (1976-80) where he graduated with his bachelor’s degree in history.  In August of 1980, Tom entered the Society of Jesus at the St. Andrew Hall Novitiate in Syracuse, New York. After two years as a novice (1980-1982), he moved on to Fordham University in the Bronx to earn his MA in philosophy (1982-84).
When he finished his philosophy studies, Tom was missioned to Japan, the native land of his mother, to study the Japanese language at the Jesuit Sophia University in Tokyo (1984-86). After language study, Tom did three years of regency (1986-89) teaching English first at Rokko Gakuen High School in Kobe for one year and then for two years at Taisei Gakuen High School in Fukuoka. Regency was followed by theology studies at the Jesuit Theologate at Kamishakujii in Tokyo (1989-1993). Tom was ordained to the priesthood at Saint Ignatius Church in Tokyo on November 28, 1992.
In 1993, Tom returned to the United States and attended Weston School of Theology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he earned an MA in theology (1993-94). He then moved to the Jesuit Community of St. Ignatius Loyola on 83rd Street in Manhattan where he was assigned to Loyola School for the next 13 years (1994-2007). During these years at Loyola School Tom endeared himself to faculty and staff, parents and especially to students while he  taught both theology and history and was the school chaplain. For several years during this time (1997-2004) Tom was also a chaplain to the Japanese Catholic community in the New York Archdiocese.
Tom was an avid fan and was proud to have served as an assistant chaplain to the New York Yankees for two seasons (1998 & 1999). He was especially helpful to the Japanese ball players who came to New York to play with the Yankees.
Because of frail health, Tom was assigned in 2007 to Murray-Weigel Hall, the Jesuit health care facility in the Bronx. Despite his physical problems, Tom served, as he was able, in various capacities. He did some pastoral ministry, and, for a while, he was the coordinator of recreation activities for the Jesuits at Murray-Weigel. He was sacristan for the community chapel and assistant to the Murray-Weigel Hall chaplain. He served a term as a house consultor and was a gentle admonitor to the superior.
Tom always had a pleasant disposition and often, with a twinkle in his eye, had a little joke (or two or three or four in rapid succession) to tell. For several years he acted as commissioner for the house football pool, quick to let you know that he was not engaged in any kind of illegal gambling. He was generous to a fault and would cheerfully take on any task he was asked to perform. He was a very dedicated Jesuit priest.
During the last weeks of his life, Tom was with us and he wasn’t with us. In these days he was surely already more with God than he was with us.  In the early morning of the Fourth Sunday of Advent, three days before Christmas, the Lord Jesus, whom Tom served so well for so many years, welcomed him into his arms and presented him to God the Most High. It was to be a very Merry Christmas.
