Fr. Dennis William Ruane, SSS

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Fr. Dennis William Ruane, SSS

January 13, 1932 ~ 2018

Father Dennis Ruane, SSS, 86, lived a very colorful life! He was born on January 13, 1932 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and, after growing up in the Philly area, he joined the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament (SSS) in 1952 and prepared for religious life in Barre, Massachusetts. He professed religious vows with the SSS on September 8, 1954. He studied at Saint Joseph Seminary (SSS), Cleveland, Ohio from 1954 to 1960, and was ordained a priest on September 19, 1959.  

His first assignment was as a teacher of Latin and Greek at the Eymard Seminary in Hyde Park, New York from 1960 to 1967. He was a missioner for the SSS to Uganda, Tanzania from 1970 to 1974. After a few years of hospital work in Camden, New Jersey and Fairfield, Connecticut, he returned to Tanzania from 1978 to 1987.  

Returning to the United States, he turned to his passion of counseling, working with the homeless and assisting with Alcoholics Anonymous in Albuquerque and Farmington New Mexico from 1987 to 2000.  He was a high school counselor at Juan Diego Catholic High School in Draper from 2000 to 2009.  From 2009 to 2015 he continued being a counselor in Hawaii. From 2015 to 2018, he lived in Highland Heights and Richfield Ohio, serving as a spiritual director, counselor and lecturer in scripture at both SSS locations.  

A man who had a passion for learning, he did graduate studies at Columbia University and later in life completed his PhD in psychology from the University of Utah (drug and rehab counseling) at the age of 80.

Father Dennis died peacefully, surrounded by SSS and the loving, caring Regina Staff on July 30, 2018. We are grateful to God for the gift of his humor and love for “seeing all things in the light of the Eucharist” (Rule of Life).

Please contribute to his honor and the Education Fund of the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament, 5384 Wilson Mills Road, Highland Heights, OH.

The funeral Mass was celebrated August 2, 2018 at Regina Health Center, Richfield. Burial was at All Souls Cemetery, Chardon, Ohio.