Society of African Missions -Province of the United States

Born on 25 May 1897 in Stormlake in the diocese of Sioux City, USA Permanent member of the SMA on 6 November 1917 Priest on 10 July 1921 Died 24 January 1991

1921-1931 Chamalières and Haguenau, teacher 1931-1958 missionary in the USA 1946-1958 Provincial Councillor 1958-1961 Washington, spiritual director 1961-1964 Dedham, spiritual director 1964-1966 Doylestown, spiritual director 1966-1991 Tenafly Died in Tenafly, USA, on 24 January 1991, aged 93

Father Adolph Joseph GALL (1897 – 1991)

Adolph Gall was born in Buena Vista, Storm Lake, Iowa, USA, in the diocese of Sioux Falls, USA, on May 20, 1897.
He died in the SMA Provincial House, at Tenafly, NJ, USA, on January 24, 1991.

Adolph Gall was born in the corn belt of mid-America, in Storm Lake, Iowa. He was one of four children of Isidore and Barbara (nee Meyer) Gall who had emigrated from Alsace to farm in Iowa. However, due to Barbara’s chronic homesickness, a few short years after Adolph’s birth the family returned to their native land, to Thanville, Alsace, France. Adolph received his grade school education in Thanville between the ages of six and thirteen. From an early childhood he had expressed the desire to be a missionary priest and on completion of grade school his parents permitted him to enter the SMA’s secondary school at Keer en Cadier, Holland. After graduation in 1917 he was promoted to the Society’s philosophy seminary, located at Keer during the war years. He studied theology in the Society’s major seminary, at Cours Gambetta, Lyon, France (1917-1921). Adolph was received as a member of the Society on November 9, 1918. He was ordained a priest in the seminary chapel at Lyon by Bishop Jules Moury SMA, Vicar Apostolic of the Ivory Coast, on July 10, 1921.

After ordination Adolph taught for a decade in the Society’s second-level colleges, in the Petit Séminaire des Roches at Chamalieres (Puy-de-Dome) and in St. Arbogast’s seminary, Haguenau, both in France. In 1931 he was appointed to the Georgia missions which had been established at the turn of the century by Ignace Lissner. He was to spend the next 28 years ministering in this region, serving briefly in St. Benedict the Moor’s mission, Savannah (1931-1933) and then in St. Mary’s church, Savannah (1931-47), and Immaculate Conception church, Augusta (1947-58). In St. Mary’s he constructed a fine church hall in 1944. Four years later, in Augusta, he built a new High School and added on a splendid auditorium ten years later. In May 1959 Adolph’s priestly career took a different direction when he was appointed Spiritual Director at Queen of Apostles Seminary, Washington DC. Two years later, in 1961, he became Spiritual Director in the Province’s novitiate and philosophical seminary, also named Queen of Apostles, at Dedham, Mass. His long years as a teacher and in the pastoral field made him an ideal choice for these positions. Later he was to serve briefly as Spiritual Director in Ave Maria Seminary, Doylestown, Pa., to where the novitiate was moved in … In August 1966 Adolph was appointed to the staff of the Provincial House at Tenafly NJ.

Adolph was a founding member of the American Province, which was erected in March 1941 and largely composed of Alsatian and Irish confreres who staffed mission parishes in Georgia and Illinois. His contribution to the Province in the ministry of priestly formation, carried out as Spiritual Director in the Province’s seminaries, was invaluable. Earlier, in February 1946, while in Georgia, he was co-opted as a member of the Provincial Council on the death of Fr. Weiss.

Adolph had a long and active retirement. A short, strongly-built, man, with robust health, he was sharp pool player up to the time of his death. He relished the demolition of all opposition – some from opponents have his age – in the daily games played after supper at Tenafly. It was here on April 6, 1991 that Adolph celebrated the 70th anniversary of his priesthood. It was here too that he died at the age of ninety-three years.

He is buried in the SMA Community Plot, Mount Carmel Cemetery, Tenafly, NJ, USA.