Of your charity, please pray for the repose of the soul of Father John “Jake” Foglio who died Monday, October 5. He was 91-years-old. May he rest in peace.
“Father Jake was a very beloved servant of Saint John’s Church & Student Center and the Michigan State University Community in East Lansing. He will be greatly missed. Please pray for the repose of his soul!” said Father Gordon Reigle, Pastor of Saint John Church & Student Center, October 6.
John Patrick Foglio was born in New Rochelle in New York on March 23, 1929. He arrived in East Lansing in 1948 to pursue a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Communications at Michigan State University. After working at WKAR radio as a student, Jake Foglio accepted his first job upon graduation in 1951 at WTVB in Coldwater. It didn’t last, however. He was drafted soon into the United States Marines during the Korean War and spent two years on active duty in the Atlantic Ocean.
After serving with the Marines, Jake Foglio changed course and changed his mind. His days in radio were over. Instead, he enrolled at Sacred Heart Seminary in Detroit. Following further studies at St. John’s Provincial Seminary, Plymouth, Father Jake Foglio was ordained to the sacred priesthood for the Diocese of Lansing on June 3, 1961, by Bishop Joseph Albers. Father Foglio then served at St Augustine, Kalamazoo; St Mary, Jackson; and Sacred Heart, Flint; before returning to Saint John’s Student Parish in East Lansing where he stayed from 1967 to 1969.
Father Foglio was then reassigned to Saint John the Evangelist, Fenton, for three-years but returned to East Lansing and Saint John’s Student Parish in 1972. It is during this period that he strengthened a friendship with MSU’s football coach Duffy Daugherty and began service as chaplain for the Spartans’ football team, a role which would continue for many decades.
Academically, Father Foglio served as an Assistant Professor in the MSU Department of Family Medicine from 1986 to 1997. His work was later honored by MSU with the establishment of a the Foglio Chair of Spirituality in the College of Arts and Letters in 2018. Father Foglio retired with senior priest status in 1994, although he remained a very active member of the Saint John Student Center community until his death. Father John “Jake” Foglio (1929 – 2020), Requiescat in Pace.
• Additional material courtesy of the Lansing State Journal: https://www.lansingstatejournal.com/