Art was born in Winnipeg, grew up in St. Ignatius Loyola Parish and graduated from St. Paul’s Jesuit High School; he entered the Guelph novitiate on 7 September 1956. During novitiate he learned to type (from Br Frank Dolese) and to cook (as 2nd cook to Br William Westaway), both skills that would serve him well in his many years of ministry. Following first vows he went to learn carpentry and building maintenance at the Brothers Juniorate at Florissant, Missouri. In 1961 he was assigned to Regis College Print Shop in Willowdale, Ontario. In 1963 he was missioned to the Jesuit Curia in Rome as secretary to several English-speaking Assistancies. He was a typist for GC 31, and for the 2nd and 3rd sessions of Vatican Council II, where he typed speeches for Vatican officials. After Fr. Pedro Arrupe was elected Superior General in 1965, Art returned to Canada to serve as Brother Socius to six provincials for 28 years.
He returned to Rome in 1991 to serve as secretary to the director at the Jesuit Refugee Service and as general secretary to the English and USA Assistancies. He also served as director of printing at the 34th General Congregation under Fr. Adolfo Nicolás, who was secretary to GC34. At its conclusion in 1995 Art was assigned as minister to the Ottawa community. Until he left Ottawa in 2007, he continued to commute twice annually to Rome and Loyola giving logistical and secretarial support to international meetings of the JRS, and of the Education, Formation and Ignatian Secretariats. He did secretarial work at GC 35 under Arturo Sosa, the Secretary of the GC.
In 2007 he was assigned to Regis College as assistant to the Minister. He continued his Roman commute until 2009, when he sang his Arrivederci a Roma. In 2010 became Minister to the La Storta Community in Pickering.
Art served as editor of the English Canada Province Newsletter for 35 years, producing worthy and accurate obituaries. A lover of opera, he was also an enthusiastic traveller: a 5-month sabbatical in India and Bhutan; a 4 month visit to Europe in 1982, including visits behind the then Iron Curtain to Hungary and Czechoslovakia; Africa and the Holy Land in 1988; in 1992, visits to JRS centres in Hong Kong, Thailand, the Cambodian border, and Bosnia; in 2009, a month spent participating in the Australian province congress. Meeting with Jesuits and partners in mission was the basic impetus for all these travels.
