Father Niehaus, 74, History Professor Submitted by N.O.V.A. July 2005 Times Picayune 07-29-1998 ************************************************* Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ************************************************ The Rev. Earl F. Niehaus, a professor of history at Xavier University and former provincial of the Marist Fathers, died Sunday of kidney failure at Memorial Medical Center. He was 74. A native of Wheeling, W.Va., Father Niehaus completed his studies for the priesthood at the Marist College in Washington and was ordained in 1951. He later received a master's degree and a doctorate in history from Tulane University. He taught the history of philosophy at Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans from 1952 to 1960 before leaving for assignments in the East and Midwest. He was provincial of the Washington Province of the Marists from 1967 to 1969 and then was elected vicar general to the superior general of the Marists in Rome, where he remained until 1977. Father Niehaus returned to New Orleans in 1978 and was pastor of St. Julian Eymard Parish in Algiers until 1982. He joined the theology faculty at Xavier in 1986 and two years later became a member of the history department. Since 1989 he has been in residence at St. Francis Xavier Parish in Metairie. His doctoral dissertation, "The Irish in New Orleans, 1803-1862," was published by Louisiana State University Press in 1965. Father Niehaus also was the author of several articles in professional journals, including the Louisiana Historical Review and the Catholic Historical Quarterly, and was a contributor to the Encyclopedia of American Catholic History. He was an associate editor of "Cross, Crozier and Crucible," a volume celebrating the bicentennial of the Catholic Diocese of Louisiana, and contributed three articles to it. He was chairman of the Archdiocesan Ecumenical Commission and director of historical research for the Archdiocese of New Orleans. Survivors include three sisters, Laverne Prettyman of Wheeling, Eleanor Buchanan of Richmond, Ind., and Ethel Rohrl of Jacksonville, Fla. A Mass will be said Thursday at 11 a.m. at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church, 448 Metairie Road, Metairie. A wake will be held today at 7 p.m. at the church, followed by visitation until 10 p.m. Burial will be in Mount Calvary Cemetery in Wheeling. Lake Lawn Metairie Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.