JOHN L'HEUREUX

L'HEUREUX, John Author of more than 20 books and Professor of English at Stanford University for 36 years, died on Monday, April 22nd in Palo Alto California. He was 84 years old. The cause of death was complications from Parkinson's Disease. Jonn L'Heureux was born in South Hadley, MA, where he attended local schools. He entered the Jesuits in 1954 and was ordained to the Roman Catholic priesthood in 1966. Three years later he applied for laicization, which the Vatican granted in 1971. That same year he married Joan Polston, a teacher in the Stoneham Public Schools. He dropped out of the English PhD program at Harvard to take a position as Staff Editor at The Atlantic Monthly where he remained a Contributing Editor for the next 11 years. In 1973, he was hired by Stanford English Department. He served as Director of the Stanford Writing Program for 13 years, while continuing to write and publish short stories and novels. His best known novels are A Woman Run Mad, The Shrine at Altamira, The Handmaid of Desire, and The Medici Boy. His short stories appeared often in The New Yorker and The Atlantic Monthly. Reviewers frequently praised his satiric voice, the fierce authenticity of his vision, and his continued attempt "to redeem the unredeemable." A Memorial Mass will be celebrated at Saint Albert the Great Church in Palo Alto on Saturday, May 25 at 10:00 A.M.

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