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Thomas Joseph Walsh, S.J. was born in Sherbrooke, Quebec on March 13, 1899. After attending Loyal College in Montreal and serving as an officer in the Canadian Officers Training Corps, he joined the Jesuit novitiate in Guelph, Ontario in 1923 with the “desire to serve the aboriginal people of Northern Ontario.” He proceeded to complete his education between Guelph and Mount Saint Michael’s in Spokane, Washington; he was then assigned to the residential school in Spanish, Ontario from 1927 to 1929 where he taught classes and studied Ojibwe. He finished his studies at Immaculée-Conception in Montreal and was ordained a priest in August of 1932, followed by studies at St. Beuno’s College in Wales.

In 1935, Father Walsh returned to the residential school in Spanish as minister and disciplinarian, but left to take up nine years of teaching at Loyola College. For the next 22 years, beginning in 1945, Father Walsh served as national director of the Sacred Heart Program—a 15-minute radio program of religious instruction and music. His resulting friendship with various radio broadcasters allowed Father Walsh to fundraise and sponsor a series of broadcasted lectures and concerts, and in 1956, a televised component of the Sacred Heart Program was taken up. In 1967 Walsh retired from his director duties and took up parish work, mostly centred around Toronto, and then later—from 1976 to 1981—in the archdiocese of Montreal. In 1981, he retired to the Jesuit Infirmary in Pickering, Ontario, and died two years later.

Nicholas Vandermoor was born in Overschei, Netherlands on July 24, 1894. Brother Vandermoor’s family emigrated to Saskatchewan, Canada in 1910; upon his parents’ death, Vandermoor moved to Vancouver Island where he worked as a caretaker and farmer at a residential school for Indigenous children run by the Sisters of St. Anne. From here, Vandermoor entered the Jesuit novitiate in November of 1925; shortly after saying his vows as a Brother, Vandermoor was assigned to the Spanish Residential School as farm supervisor. He would stay in Spanish for the remaining 42 years of his life.

With a focus on “industry,” the Spanish Residential School opened an auto mechanics course which Brother Vandermoor—a licensed auto mechanic—took charge of. When the Spanish Residential School closed in 1958, Brother Vandermoor remained at Spanish as a mechanic and custodian, caring for the remaining Jesuit properties. In 1966 and 1967, he served as assistant to the Superior at Spanish, and from 1967 until a collision took his life in 1969, he served as assistant to the pastor at Spanish.

The Immaculate Conception Parish is located in the Dunbar area, in Vancouver. The idea of the parish originated in May 1922. After the survey conducted by Provincial Superior John Milway Filion, from the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits were granted 10 acres by the government from University of British Columbia lands. The land was given on the condition that a school and a classical college would be built when feasible.

In 1922, Archbishop of Vancouver Timothy Casey invited the Jesuits to establish a parish in Vancouver’s Point Grey area. The parish officially opened on March 2, 1924, with Walter McManus, S.J. as its first pastor. By March 1925, Jesuit funds were used to construct a small church and create a school space. The church was completed and blessed on December 12, 1926. That same year, a school (which would later be known as the Immaculate Conception School) opened in the church basement, initially run by the Sisters of the Sacred Heart, then by the Sisters of St. Ann, and later by lay teachers. Although there were plans to establish a classical college, they were never realized due to internal resistance within the Jesuit community and the archdiocese, and a lack of manpower and funding.

Over the decades, the parish built a new hall, acquired additional property and expanded the church and the school. In 1946, Adalbert Leahy, S.J. arrived and served as an assistant priest for 38 years, becoming a key figure in preserving the parish’s history through detailed diaries.

On July 31, 1984—in the sixtieth year of the parish—and under the orders of Provincial Superior William F. Ryan, S.J., the Jesuits handed the parish over to Fr. Stephen Jensen, the first diocesan priest. The new administration continued to grow the parish and engage with the school and community.