On December 30, 1984, James Athanasius Weisheipl died unexpectedly while visiting with friends and colleagues at St. Thomas More College in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. Afflicted with emphysema, he had contracted pneumonia which overtaxed his weakened lungs and hastened his untimely death at the age of sixty- one. The Mass of Resurrection was celebrated on January 3, 1985, at the Priory of St. Dominic and St. Thomas, River Forest, Illinois, with burial at All Saints Cemetery, Des Plaines, Illinois.

James Patrick Weisheipl was born on July 3, 1923, in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, the only son of John and Mary Weisheipl, both of whom were deaf-mutes. He completed his elementary schooling at Sacred Heart School and his secondary education at St. Peter's High School in Oshkosh. At his own admission, he decided to become a Dominican after reading Chesterton's Saint Thomas Aquinas a junior in high school. As a freshman in the State College in Oshkosh, he was already reading St. Thomas in Latin and amassing the philosophy manuals available at that time. His vocation was furthered by the monthly lectures given in Oshkosh by the Dominicans from River Forest, Illinois, under the auspices of the Thomist Association.

James Weisheipl entered the Dominican Novitiate in 1942 and received the name Athanasius in religion. His philosophical and theological training were taken at the Dominican House of Studies in River Forest. His ordination to the priesthood took place on June 7, 1949.

Following the completion of his basic studies in 1950, Father Weisheipl began a long and distinguished career as a scholar, professor, and author in the fields of mediaeval philosophy and history. His first doctorate was granted to him in philosophy from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas in Rome (the "Angelicum"). He then continued

postgraduate research at the University of Oxford, England, where he was awarded his second doctorate in the history of mediaeval science in 1957.

In 1957, he returned to the Dominican House of Studies in River Forest, Illinois, and served as professor of mediaeval philosophy until 1965. At this time, the Dominican Order revived the Leonine Commission for the critical edition of the works of St. Thomas Aquinas. Father Weisheipl was appointed the first Director of the American Section in 1965, a post which he held until 1968.

Father Weisheipl then began a long and most productive period of his career as professor in the history of mediaeval science at the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Until his death, he was assiduously engaged in the research and publication of numerous articles and books, in the teaching and direction of doctoral dissertations, and in the priestly care and concern shown to his many students and friends. His is best remembered for his work on St. Thomas Aquinas, entitled Friar Thomas d'Aquino: His Life, Thought, and Works, published in 1974, and in a commemorative work on Saint Albert the Great, Albertus Magnus and the Sciences, published in 1980.

His academic career was further recognized by the members of his own Province and by the Order in the bestowal of the degree of Master of Sacred Theology which was presented to him by the Provincial, Father Damian Fandal, at a ceremony in Toronto on September 12, 1978.