| Admin_History | George Croft was born 24 June 1925 in Hornsey, London, the second of two sons who both became Jesuits. He was educated at St Ignatius College and entered the Society in 1942 at St Beuno’s. After his Juniorate there he went to Heythrop College, Oxfordshire, in 1946 where he studied philosophy before proceeding to Oxford to read Philosophy, Physiology and Psychology in 1949. He had a year’s regency at Stonyhurst before returning to Heythrop for theology in 1953 and was ordained there in 1956. In 1957 he returned to St Beuno’s for tertianship before going to Fordham, New York, to study Psychology until 1960, when he took his final vows. On completing a PhD in the subject he returned to Heythrop to teach psychology from 1961 to 1970 and when the college moved to London in 1970, he went with it.
In 1978 he went to teach at the Regional Seminary at Chishawasha, Zimbabwe. When the seminary was divided in 2000 Croft went with the theologians to Bulawayo where he remained until 2014. He was well known for going to every ordination, often by public transport, whereever it took place in the country.
Croft had several ‘wings’ to his work. For many years he helped assess candidates to the Society, as well as working in the various libraries of the places he lived and worked. He had an interest in music, playing the organ at Heythrop and collecting music scores. He was a keen gardener. Up to his last days at Richartz House, where he retired in 2014, Croft continued caring for plants in the small quad.
He died 5 November 2023. |