DEAN BRACKLEY

BRACKLEY--Dean. Father Dean Brackley, S.J., who joined the faculty at the University of Central America after six of his fellow Jesuits were killed at the height of El Salvador civil war, died of pancreatic and liver cancer October 16. He was 82. Originally a member of the Jesuits' New York province, Father Brackley joined the university's theology faculty after the 1989 murder of the Jesuits, their housekeeper and her daughter by Salvadoran military troops. An upstate New York native, Father Brackley was working as an educator at Fordham University and as a community organizer in Manhattan's Lower East Side when he offered to move to San Salvador. There, he administered the University of Central America's School for Religious Education from 1990 to 1996 and assisted in the work of schools for pastoral formation sponsored by the university. He also hosted numerous delegations of students from Jesuit universities, church leaders and journalists from the United States and elsewhere. He worked tirelessly for human rights and social justice in El Salvador. Father Brackley entered the Society of Jesus in 1964 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1976. He earned his doctorate in religious social ethics from the University of Chicago Divinity School in 1980. Early in his ministry he worked as a community organizer in the South Bronx, where he experienced the difficulties faced by people living in poor communities. Father Brackley was presented with an honorary doctorate of religious studies by Marquette University. He also served as a trustee of The University of San Francisco, where a scholarship for Latino students was established in his name, from 2003 until his death. The wake, funeral and burial for Fr. Brackley were all held in San Salvador. The funeral was at the chapel at the University of Central America.