Religious educator

National Catholic Reporter, April 4, 2008

John (Jack) Nelson, a founding faculty member of the Graduate School of Religion and Religious Education at Fordham University in New York, died March 14. A funeral Mass was held at University Church March 19.

Throughout his career Nelson specialized in the religious education of adolescents and created an extensive body of research and writing in this area. Colleagues remember him as "a key figure in the formation of two generations of religious educators."

He was one of the authors of one of the first modern textbook series in Catholic religious education following the Second Vatican Council (1969-65). In the 1970s and '80s he authored, in collaboration with his wife, Catherine Zates Nelson, 12 titles in a widely used series of textbooks in religious education for junior high and high school students, published by William H. Sadlier.

Mercy Sr. Janet Ruffing, professor of spirituality and spiritual direction at Fordham, called Nelson "the heart of the [graduate] school ... supportive to both students and faculty."

"He was a popular and reflective teacher, and moved easily between systematic theology and the culture of youth and young adults," she said.