Rev. Jim Willig Memorial

Fr. Jim Willig, son of Edgar and Alice Willig, attended Elder for two years before entering into the seminary and though he never graduated from Elder, he considered himself to be part of the “Elder Family.” He was a gifted and inspirational priest who shared his faith, humor and wisdom in multiple parish missions across the country. He was featured in numerous radio broadcasts and authored three books. Fr. Jim died of renal cell cancer at the age of 50 years old. He co-authored the book “Lessons from the School of Suffering” in which he shared his faith journey with having stage 4 renal cell cancer.
Fr. Jim’s unending faith in the Lord challenges us all to mimic such qualities and thus “follow the footsteps of Jesus”.

The Willig family created this scholarship fund in memory of Fr. Jim. It is the family’s hopes that those recipients of this scholarship will strive to live a life of faith according to the Gospel message that Fr. Jim preached.