The Rev. Paul Strittmatter, S.J., will be remembered for his commitment to those in his parishes of Dunlap, Mondamin and Woodbine, Iowa. He died March 30 of a sudden heart attack.

Strittmatter joined the Society of Jesus in 1964, took his first vows in 1966 and was ordained a priest in 1977. He worked for nine years on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota before becoming the pastor of St. Patrick’s Church in Dunlap, Sacred Heart Church in Woodbine and Holy Family Church in Mondamin.

“He clearly had a zest for life, a love for his fellow man and was accepting of all. He’s been an integral part in many of our family’s highs and lows and helped us all understand God a bit better,” read one post on his memorial Web site.

The Rev. Robert Tillman, S.J., a guidance counselor at Creighton Prep, has known Strittmatter since 1966 when the two took their vows together. He also celebrated the Holy Week Masses in Strittmatter’s churches.

“People considered him a very special part of their family,” Tillman said. “He was so accepting of others, and that’s in people across all age fields, from little kids to people in care facilities. He showed them all 100 percent interest.

“He was a very warm human being.”

Aside from his love for people, Tillman remembered the talks the two would have.

“He loved conversation; he loved discussions,” Tillman said. “He was very, very well read. He would just discuss any topic you wanted to discuss. He was very knowledgeable about so many different areas because he was so widely read. He always had books that he was reading.”

Strittmatter had also kept in touch with the family he formed at Rosebud.

“Every year in the first week of December he would always take a shipment of gifts for children out there,” Tillman said. “He got people from the Creighton community to donate those, probably got parishioners to donate.”

Besides his pastoral duties, Strittmatter was also an active part of his communities. Tillman said he was the chaplain for the area’s Knights of Columbus, tutored at the public school, helped mentor priests in the diocese and attended the high school sporting events in all of his towns.

Tillman said Strittmatter was a down-to-earth person who valued personal relationships.

“His hair, what was left of it, was always what I would call frazzled,” Tillman said. “He’d always have a scruffy beard. He wasn’t that worried about appearances either. The relationships were what was important to him, not appearances.”

Although Strittmatter did not want to be a parish priest originally, Tillman said that’s where he “flourished.”

“I had visited with him the Sunday before he died, two days before he died, and he talked about how he had no intentions of moving to any new ministry,” Tillman said. “He was very happy that’s what he was doing. He was looking forward to several more years of ministry among the people there.

“He had really found a home and people he loved and people who loved him.”

His memorial page is on Fouts Funeral Home Web site and condolences can be sent to:

The Rev. Robert F. O’Connor, S.J.

Creighton University Jesuit Community

2500 California Plaza

Omaha, NE 68178