Herman I. Storck, S.J. papers

Herman I. Storck, S.J., was born on November 26, 1877, in New York City. He graduated from Loyola College in 1898 and entered the Society of Jesus at St. Stanislaus, Frederick, MD, on March 24, 1898. He was ordained on June 24, 1912 at Woodstock College, and took his final vows on February 2, 1916.

Fr. Storck served as a professor of chemistry at Fordham College, Fordham Medical School, Boston College, Canisius College, and Georgetown University. In the 1920s he became increasingly known as a leader of religious retreats. While serving on the staff at Mount Manresa on Staten Island, NY, he arranged for the donation of an estate in Morristown, NJ, and founded there the Roman Catholic House of Retreats. In 1928 he established the National Laymen’s Retreat Movement, and 1936 initiated the First Friday Luncheon Clubs in New York. From 1941 to 1946 Fr. Storck served as pastor of St. Thomas Manor in Bel Alton, MD. In 1950 he returned to Loyola to become the spiritual director for the Jesuit community and student counselor of the men and women of the Evening College and Graduate Division. Illness forced Fr. Storck into semi-retirement two years before his death on February 6, 1962, at Mercy Hospital in Baltimore.

Sources: Jesuits of Canada and the United States Necrology website; Loyola Jesuit Center website; New York Times, February 7, 1962