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Fr Virgil Clarence Blum

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Fr Virgil Clarence Blum

Birth
Defiance, Shelby County, Iowa, USA
Death
5 Apr 1990 (aged 77)
Milwaukee, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, USA
Burial
Milwaukee, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, USA Add to Map
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The Rev. Virgil C. Blum, a Jesuit priest and educator who was the founder and president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, died at his home yesterday after a short illness. He was 76 years old and lived in the Jesuit residence at Marquette University in Milwaukee.

Father Blum established the Milwaukee-based league, which explores activity against Roman Catholicism in a variety of fields, in 1973. He was a strong proponent of using tax money for the support of private and parochial schools.

He received degrees at St. Louis University, including a doctorate in political science. He taught at Creighton University and at Marquette until his retirement in 1978. Marquette has established an award in political science in his honor, and in 1983 Pope John Paul II invested him as a Knight of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem.

He is survived by nine of his eleven brothers and sisters. Another brother was Father Victor Blum, SJ. who died in 1979.

Virgil Clarence Blum was born on March 27, 1913 in Defiance, Iowa, one of twelve children of John and Elizabeth Rueschenberg Blum. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1934 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1947. In 1938 Blum received a bachelor's degree in Latin and English from [St. Stanislaus Seminary] at Florissant, Missouri. In 1945 he earned a master's degree in history and political science from St. Louis University. Blum returned to St. Louis University in 1950 for doctoral studies, earning a Ph.D. in political science and U.S. history in 1954. His area of expertise was American constitutional law and interest-group politics.
The Rev. Virgil C. Blum, a Jesuit priest and educator who was the founder and president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, died at his home yesterday after a short illness. He was 76 years old and lived in the Jesuit residence at Marquette University in Milwaukee.

Father Blum established the Milwaukee-based league, which explores activity against Roman Catholicism in a variety of fields, in 1973. He was a strong proponent of using tax money for the support of private and parochial schools.

He received degrees at St. Louis University, including a doctorate in political science. He taught at Creighton University and at Marquette until his retirement in 1978. Marquette has established an award in political science in his honor, and in 1983 Pope John Paul II invested him as a Knight of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem.

He is survived by nine of his eleven brothers and sisters. Another brother was Father Victor Blum, SJ. who died in 1979.

Virgil Clarence Blum was born on March 27, 1913 in Defiance, Iowa, one of twelve children of John and Elizabeth Rueschenberg Blum. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1934 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1947. In 1938 Blum received a bachelor's degree in Latin and English from [St. Stanislaus Seminary] at Florissant, Missouri. In 1945 he earned a master's degree in history and political science from St. Louis University. Blum returned to St. Louis University in 1950 for doctoral studies, earning a Ph.D. in political science and U.S. history in 1954. His area of expertise was American constitutional law and interest-group politics.

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