60 Years a Priest

Father Bert Otten, SJ, celebrates 60 years as a priest in 2025. A native of St. Louis, he  entered the Society of Jesus in 1953 and was ordained a priest in 1965. He has served in Monze, Zambia, since 2005, where he offers pastoral ministry and assists as a technology consultant for secondary school teachers and students.

Father Otten has devoted most of his active ministry to the sciences, with a particular focus in electrical engineering. He began his teaching career in 1959, teaching physics and mathematics at Rockhurst High School in Kansas City, Missouri. He taught electrical engineering at Saint Louis University from 1967 to 1970 and at the University of Missouri from 1970 to 1973, before earning his doctorate in electrical engineering there in 1973.

After that, Fr. Otten was assigned to the Vatican Observatory in Rome to serve as a technical assistant. During this time, he also worked as an instrumentation designer at the University of Arizona’s Lunar & Planetary Lab.

Father Otten returned to teaching electrical engineering at Rockhurst University in Kansas City, Missouri, from 1975 to 1977. From 1977 to 1983, he engaged in pastoral ministries in St. Louis, overseeing the Jesuits in residence at the Fusz Pavilion at Saint Louis University as rector and superior.

In 1983, Fr. Otten began many years of service as a professor of electrical engineering at Seattle University in Washington. In 1990, he took a brief sabbatical to help with research at the Vatican Observatory’s Tucson, Arizona, branch. He returned to Seattle University again throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, teaching electrical engineering for almost fifteen years.

During this time, Fr. Otten served his first mission in Zambia, where he worked at the Kasisi Agricultural Training Center in Lusaka from 1994 to 1996. In 2005, he began ministry as an appropriate technology consultant for the Diocese of Monze in Zambia. He continues his work with secondary school science teachers and students as well as engage in pastoral ministry in Zambia today.

Father Otten earned his bachelor’s in philosophy and letters from Saint Louis University. He also received Licentiates in Sacred Theology and Philosophy from SLU, as well as his bachelor’s in electrical engineering. He earned a Master of Electric Engineering degree from the Catholic University of America and a doctorate in electrical engineering from the University of Missouri.