Collection 0700-3043 - Timothy Dwyer, S.J. Collection

Timothy Dwyer, S.J. was born in Eganville, Ontario on January 19, 1898 to a family of many priests and Sisters. He entered the St. Stanislaus Novitiate in Guelph, Ontario in June of 1919 and proceeded to complete his studies between Guelph and Immaculée-Conception in Montreal. From 1926 to 1928, Father Dwyer served as the prefect of recreation and discipline at the residential school in Spanish, Ontario, where he learned Ojibwe. He was ordained in 1931, spent a year studying at St. Beuno’s College in Wales, and then a year again immersing himself in Ojibwe language at the Holy Cross Mission in Wikwemikong.

In 1934, Father Dwyer was given responsibility for the mission stations along the north shore of the Georgian Bay and the Spanish River Indian Reserve. In 1937, he was appointed parish priest in Little Current, but he resigned within two years due to poor health to recover at the Guelph novitiate and at St. Andrew’s Parish in Port Athur, Ontario. In 1942 he returned to work as pastor at Garden River, but his poor health returned and, in 1947, a series of heart attacks led to his hospitalization in Sault Ste. Marie, where he soon passed away.