Br. Justin A. (“Judd”) DeChance, SJ, died June 16, 2025, at Sacred Heart Jesuit Center in Los Gatos, California. He was 92 years old and a Jesuit brother for 71 years. His ministry was centered on food service, hospitality and Jesuit community administration.
Br. DeChance was born in Los Angeles on February 13, 1933, the son of Gerard DeChance and Justine Brower. He attended St. Joseph’s Minor Seminary in Los Angeles but decided that he was not called to the priesthood. He saw an advertisement for the Jesuit brothers in a Catholic magazine and contacted the vocation office in San Francisco. He began his novitiate at Sacred Heart Novitiate in Los Gatos in October 1953. After his two-year noviceship, he pronounced his vows and was assigned to the kitchen, where, he said, he “learned to boil water.”
In 1958, Br. DeChance was in the first group of Jesuit brothers in the U.S. to receive professional instruction in food service management. Based at the Jesuit community in Milford, Ohio, he received a certificate in Supervision and Management in Nutrition and Food Service from Good Samaritan Hospital in Cincinnati and a diploma from the National School of Meat Cutting in Toledo. He returned to Los Gatos and supervised the kitchen at Sacred Heart Novitiate (1960-1966), serving a large community. He held the same position at the Jesuit Retreat Center in Los Altos, California (1966-1971).
After a year of ministry at St. Clare’s Church, Santa Clara, California, Br. DeChance became guestmaster at the University of San Francisco, accommodating large numbers of visiting Jesuits from around the world. In 1979, he returned to his native Los Angeles and served as assistant to the dean, bookstore manager and AV coordinator at Loyola High School. From 1979-1985, he served as assistant minister and guestmaster at the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, California.
In 1985, he began a 27-year ministry as minister and guestmaster at Jesuit High School in Carmichael, California. In addition to his administration duties in the Jesuit community, he assisted in the dean’s office in the school. In 2012, he returned to Los Gatos to assist the superior in a variety of duties.
Br. DeChance actively promoted the vocation of brothers. In addition to his community assignments, he was active in the establishment of the National Jesuit Brothers Committee in the 1980s and served as its chairman (1994-1997). This advisory body to the provincials promoted the ministerial training and community involvement of the Jesuit brothers in the United States. He helped produce informational brochures for the province vocations director; researched background material for fellow Jesuit High community member Father William Breault’s biography of Jesuit saint René Goupil, “The Ghost of the Mohawk Valley”; and was producer of the DVD production based on the book, shown on EWTN in 2011. He also served as a member of the Sacramento County Grand Jury (1993-1994).
Br. DeChance left no immediate family.
A Mass of Christian Burial will take place on Wednesday, July 2, 2025, with visitation from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m., Vigil prayers at 10:45 a.m., and Mass at 11:15 a.m. at Sacred Heart Jesuit Center, 300 College Avenue, Los Gatos, CA 95930, with burial immediately after at Santa Clara Mission Cemetery, 490 Lincoln Street, Santa Clara, CA 95050. The funeral will be livestreamed.
Donations in memory of Br. DeChance may be made to the Jesuits West Province of the Society of Jesus, P.O. Box 68, Los Gatos, CA 95031, or to a charity of your choosing.