Rev. Kenneth J. Urumolug, SJ, was born on February 15, 1965, on Satawal Island in Micronesia. He attended Xavier High School in Chuuk, and earned a B.A. in Sociology from the University of Guam. He entered the Manresa Jesuit Novitiate on Palau, on October 18, 1988. He received his Certificate in Philosophy from Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines, his Master of Divinity from the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, CA, and was ordained to the priesthood on June 15, 2002, at St. Michael Church on Satawal Island, where he had been baptized.
Following ordination, Fr. Urumolug served for two years in pastoral ministry at St. Ignatius Church in Yap. He then served another two years as vocation director at the St. Ignatius House of Studies in Guam.
Between 2006 and 2014, Fr. Urumolug served in a number of roles, first as an assistant to the director and a pastor at his high school alma mater, Xavier in Chuuk, then returned to Yap as pastor of Queen of Heaven Church and pastor of St. Ignatius Parish. He also served for a year as the Vicar of Yap. He spent three years on the island of Pohnpei wearing many hats as well—director of vocations, assistant pastor at Our Lady of Mercy Parish, and campus minister at the College of Micronesia.
In 2015, Fr. Urumolug became Episcopal Vicar of Pohnpei and Chancellor for the Diocese of the Caroline Islands, where he served for eight years. Known by his friends and brother Jesuits simply as Ken U., Fr. Urumolug was a quiet man with an infectious smile and kind heart. Students, parishioners, seminarians, and others gravitated toward this larger than life, loving Jesuit priest. Even when his health began to fail, Fr. Urumolug often celebrated Mass while seated at the altar.
Fr. Urumolug died at the hospital in Guam on the morning of December 18, 2023, at the age of 58.