Fr Thomas B Steinbugler SJ died at about 9:30 am on June 10 in the Jesuit Residence in the Ateneo de Manila University. He had been suffering from severe pulmonary weakness for some time. Fr Tom was born on Dec 27, 1929, entered the Society on July 30, 1948, and was ordained a priest on June 17, 1961.
As a scholastic, Fr Tom was sent from the New York Province to the Philippines in 1955 to work in the Ateneo de Manila University. For many years he worked there as an administrator (Dean of Admissions among many other roles). He established in the mid-1960s a scholarship programme for poor students, and was one of the proponents for Ateneo de Manila to go co-educational, a proposal that was rejected when first mooted in 1968 but accepted the following year.
In the mid-1970s, Fr Tom began working with the Jesuit Conference as an assistant for the network on tertiary education. He was its treasurer off and on from 1976 to 2009, and assisted successive Conference presidents, especially Fr Zuloaga, on many projects. In the late 1970s he became Socius and editor of its newsletter.
In 1990, Fr Tom moved to Bangkok to become the Regional Director of Jesuit Refugee Service for Asia Pacific. In that capacity he set up a Legal Aid project that worked in Hong Kong and Palawan Philippines. He sent the JRS team into Cambodia, a move that became the beginnings of the Jesuit Mission there. Returning to Manila after three years in JRS, he continued as the JRS representative for the Philippines. He returned to the Conference team where he remained as Treasurer and a secretary until 2009, the year he turned 80.
One project that engaged Fr Tom, as Special Assistant to then Conference President Fr Zuloaga, was the setting up of the Beijing Center in Beijing. He was also engaged in setting up, in conjunction with Fordham University, an MBA programme, BIMBA, at Peking University.
His funeral Mass was held at 8 am on June 14 in the Oratory of St. Ignatius, Loyola House of Studies, Ateneo de Manila University. He is buried in the Sacred Heart Novitiate cemetery, Novaliches, Quezon City.
Read the homily by Fr Mark Raper SJ, President of the Jesuit Conference of Asia.