Ronald Wendling, Ph.D.:
Colleague and Friend

Two Mondays ago, I arrived at my office, opened my email and learned that my friend, Dr. Ronald Wendling, a long-time professor in St. Joseph’s University’s English Department, had passed away. As I set about letting others in our department know, the phrase “Lay-Jesuit Partnership” kept coming back to me. In part, I suppose that’s because, before being married to his beloved Mary and raising Margie and Jennifer, Ron had been a member of the Society of Jesus. For this reason, his formation as a scholar, professor and Christian had deep roots in the Jesuit Order. Specifically, Ron recognized a complexity in belief and in the practice of religion. This carried over to his study of and writing about the British Romantic Poets — especially Samuel Taylor Coleridge.  

That kind of appreciation for complexity, however, also had an important nuance beyond the Jesuits, beyond religion and beyond the poets whom he so loved. Ron also understood that his opinions needed to apply in an academic department at a changing university. Two examples, perhaps, will illustrate my point. First, nearly forty years ago, Ron took over our honors program, setting a standard for student academic work and cultural immersion that faculty strive to uphold to this day. Second, when I arrived at St. Joseph’s in 2001, Ron received me with the kindest of attention. His grace and generosity had a particular poignancy, because I also wanted to teach courses in British Romantics which, even then, were not exactly in demand. Without fanfare, however, Ron readily shared these classes with me and, in so doing, exemplified a hospitality and consideration that spanned generations. I shall always cherish this memory.  

I know, too, that other colleagues have had similar experiences with Ron. Dr. David Sorensen, also in Saint Joseph’s English Department, summed up Ron’s legacy aptly, “As a scholar, intellect, and teacher, he was a rare embodiment of what the Victorian critic Matthew Arnold called ‘Sweetness and Light’… He was a fiercely intelligent man with an expansive and penetrating intellect, yet he never sought the limelight or posed as an expert. Colleagues and students remembered him for his almost saintly kindness, diffidence and generosity, but he possessed a wonderfully impish & wicked humor that preserved him from piety and self-importance. As an authority on Coleridge­ — a notoriously difficult thinker, writer, and poet — he had very few equals.” 

Intelligence. Kindness. Generosity. Good Humor. Faith. These qualities combined to make Dr. Ronald Wendling the type of colleague one always wishes for. Perhaps especially today,  though, when Saint Joseph’s University faces such profound changes and challenges, his memory can remind us that we must look for and encourage these characteristics in our colleagues, students, and everyone we meet.

– Thomas J. Brennan, S.J.