He was the founder of St. Thomas Aquinas Church, an inspirational leader for ISU students for more than five decades and a friend to everyone he met.

Monsignor James A. Supple, 91, died Sunday after a battle with pneumonia.

Supple, better known as “James of Ames” to the St. Thomas Aquinas family, will leave a powerful legacy behind. He was an icon at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church and helped guide thousands of ISU students through their spiritual journeys for more than 50 years.

Supple was born Feb. 27, 1912 in Cascade and was assigned to St. Thomas Aquinas in 1947. In 1980, he was transferred to St. Patrick’s Church in Nevada, where he worked until his retirement in 1987.

After his retirement, those who knew him said he was as involved in the church as ever.

“They practically had to force him to retire, but even after that he worked as hard if not harder than I did,” said Rev. Everett Hemann, a pastor at St. Thomas Aquinas.

Current Iowa State students also had a chance to get to know Supple.

“I would always see him in church, mostly at the 7 p.m. mass on Sunday nights when a lot of students are there,” said Katherine Currie, junior in communication studies. “I remember him telling a lot of stories about having mass in the Memorial Union.

“It took him 16 years to get the church that we have today. The St. Thomas Aquinas Church is basically his doing.”

John Donaghy, campus minister at St. Thomas Aquinas, has known Supple since coming to St. Thomas twenty years ago.

“What was so significant about him was that he [had] founded and nurtured the student center since 1947,” Donaghy said. “There are not many places like St. Thomas that have both students and nonstudents as members of the same parish.

“He had such a strong vision and a strong sense of wanting to connect with people,” Donaghy said. “He had this great Irish humor and loved to get other people to laugh. He endeared himself to many people by humor and his ability to connect people to one another.”

Hemann echoed Donaghy’s thoughts. “He just had an incredible gift of humor,” Hemann said. “Students would crowd around him whenever he was in the student center to hear his jokes and stories.”

Wade Johnson, former Iowa State student, drove Supple to church every Wednesday night last fall. He said he will never forget those car rides.

“I picked him up every week at his assisted living home, and he always had different stories and jokes to tell me,” Johnson said. “You’d never know he was 90 years old. He was sharp as a tack. He was the most interesting guy to talk to.”

Johnson said one memory of Supple sticks out in his mind.

“The first time I met him, I was a freshman in college and I was eating dinner in the church,” Johnson said. “He came in and started talking to us. There was music on so he started dancing, even though he had a cane. He would just always be dancing and laughing, and he was always in a good mood.”

What pastors and students remember most about Supple, however, was his ability to remember everyone he met.

“He had this extraordinary ability to remember names,” Hemann said. “It didn’t matter how much time had passed, he never forgot anyone. He would meet students and say, ‘Oh, I remember your parents, I married them! How are they doing?’ It always amazed us.”

Hemann remembers one time in particular Supple stunned him with his gift of memory.

“There was this man who came to church one Sunday, and Monsignor Supple greeted him by name,” Hemann said. “He had been out of school for 25 years and hadn’t been back since. The man was amazed. I remember him saying, ‘I never even went to church that often.'”

Hemann said he was currently notifying the “Friends of Monsignor Supple” of Supple’s death. The list includes 600 to 800 names.

“Those are just the people that have sent him a card or a gift in the last year!” Hemann said. “There were people from almost every state, and the connections have been made all through Iowa State and St. Thomas.”

Hemann said Supple was proud of becoming one of Iowa State’s first four honorary alumni and the establishment of the James A. Supple Chair of Catholic Studies, which was created through private donations in order to extend information on religion to students on campus.

“He was an extraordinary man, devoted to the church and especially to the students of Iowa State,” said David Hunter, professor of philosophy and religious studies.