Fr David Strong SJ, The Australian dictionary of Jesuit biography 1848-2015, Second Edition, 2017:
Sheridan, Denis [includes a photograph]

Pastor, financier; born Chatswood, Sydney, 21 December 1917; died Sydney, 17 February 1985, aged 67.

Denis Sheridan's secondary education was at St Joseph's College, Hunter's Hill, NSW. After leaving school he entered the service of the Commonwealth Bank and attended a night course in the faculty of economics at the University of Sydney, graduating with a BEc degree in 1939. He was also a member of the once-renowned Campion Society. He entered the Society the next year, 20 May 1940, at Loyola College, Watsonia.

In those days he was a chubby young man of ample figure, but this diminished in the first year of his noviceship, and any who saw his spare figure thereafter were reminded of Mahatma Gandhi after a prolonged fast. At this time too he developed a distressing stomach condition that remained with him for the rest of his life. It must have been very debilitating, but it never exhausted the nervous energy he was always able to draw upon and which kept him constantly active.

As a scholastic he taught for short periods at St Patrick's College, St Aloysius' College, Milson's Point, St Louis, Perth, and at Burke Hall. He developed a speech defect that narrowed his pastoral activity. One day in Perth he was taking some boarders on a train from Swanbourne station and he told the boys not to enter the train until he blew his whistle. Upon the whistle being blown the train departed with the group still standing on the station.

Theology studies followed at Canisius College, Pymble, 1948-51, and tertianship at Sevenhill in 1952.

As a priest he taught for a year at St Ignatius' College, Norwood, South Australia. The following year, 1954, he worked at the provincial residence administering the 'Indian Mission Stamp Unit', a job he continued at Canisius College, Pymble, from 1956-69. He was also minister of that house from 1961-68, and was superior during 1969.

From 1970-73 Sheridan was parish priest of St Francis Xavier's, Lavender Bay, North Sydney, and also directed the Pioneers of Total Abstinence. His next work was province procurator, 1974-80, living at the provincial residence. His service in this unglamorous work was given with good humour and courtesy. After a year overseas, he lived at Canisius College, Pymble, 1983-85, where he was assistant bursar.

Sheridan spent all his priestly life in uncertain health, and this helped determine what he was able to do. He was a true battler. Yet, he would fulfill a number of engagements in different and quite distant places giving an impression of multilocation. One day, he was known to have said a 6.15 am Mass at Lourdes hospital, Killara, then a 7 am Mass at Santa Sabina, Strathfield, and finally a 9 am Mass in the Pymble parish Church.

He was good at managing finances, and was respected by province members. Not long before he died he remarked that he had raised nearly $30,000 for the Indian Mission through his stamp dealings. These were probably as involved and piously devious as many of his financial transactions. In fact, there was an almost comic secrecy surrounding all his dealings. It was said also that when travelling he observed the same trail-concealing tactics.

Of the important things remembered about Sheridan there stands out his compassion and gentleness and the fact that he was never known to say a harsh word about anyone. He was highly valued by the scholastics during his days as minister of the theologate. His passing brought sadness to many friends and grateful recipients of his humble service.

(Reproduced by permission of Fr David Strong SJ.)