Father Jean Turgeon passed away on the night of Tuesday, 7 October 2025, at the Résidence Notre-Dame de Richelieu, where he had been living since 2017. He was 89 years old. He had been suffering from memory loss for several years. Deafness had gradually cut him off from verbal contact with those around him in the last years of his life.
Jean was born on 8 May 1936 in Montreal. His father and mother were both pharmacists. He had an older brother and sister, who died well before him. After completing his secondary and college studies at Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf, he entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus on 14 August 1956. He took his first vows in 1958. He first studied literature for a year before beginning a bachelor’s degree in philosophy at the Jesuit Faculties in Montreal. Instead of entering regency after the first stage of his training, he began studies in mathematics, which he continued until he obtained his doctorate in 1968 from the University of Toronto. During his years of study in Toronto (from 1962 to 1968), he became friends with several companions from the Province of English Canada, including Daniel Byrne and Jacques Monet, with whom he corresponded for many years. He began his career in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Montreal in 1969 and continued to teach there even after receiving the title of honorary professor in 2004.
Jean enrolled in the Faculty of Theology at the University of Montreal in 1968. The following year, he taught his first mathematics courses at the same university. He obtained permission to continue his theology studies privately under the guidance of a tutor. He was ordained a priest on 8 May 1971, at the same time as Bernard Bélair, at Saint-Germain Church in Outremont. He pronounced his final vows in 1978.
Jean saw his commitment to mathematics as a mission. Throughout his years as a professor, he insisted on teaching at the undergraduate level, and he continued to do so for several years after retiring from the university, as a lecturer. He enjoyed discussing with his students topics that were the subject of his research, such as how the calendar was established in various civilisations. He was one of the initiators of the annual mathematics competition for secondary school students in Quebec. He travelled to China twice to teach summer courses. After retiring from teaching mathematics, he taught a few courses at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, New York, in which he discussed topics outside their specific field of study with the students.
It was after much reflection and consultation with several Jesuits involved in the scientific field that Jean sought permission to pursue studies in mathematics after philosophy. In the spiritual journal he had begun writing at the end of his college studies, he noted in early September 1961, as he began his first year of studies at Loyola College in preparation for admission to the University of Toronto: “It seems to me that if God makes us clearly feel the need for scientist priests, he also gives us the means to bring them forth… For my part, I am embarking on a career as a Jesuit mathematician with the feeling that God is calling me to do so… “Go, teach all nations!” These words implicitly include the requirement to learn the languages of all nations… In order to make myself understood by mathematicians, I who will be one of them, I will speak their language.”
In August 2006, as he was about to celebrate his 50th anniversary in the Society, Father General Kolvenbach addressed him with the following words: “For more than 35 years, you have been a professor of mathematics… While taking on these demanding tasks that require concentration, you have not neglected spiritual work, the Exercises in daily life… With the encouragement of your superiors, you have maintained for several years your interest in Jesuit work in China, one of the apostolic preferences of the Society.”
