"The Religious Aspect of the Poetry of Gerald Manley Hopkins" was his master thesis.
He was ordained as a priest in 1942, and obtained a doctorate in English from Harvard University in 1948.
A festschrift in his honour was published as the November 1971 issue of Moreana, edited by Germain Marc'hadour.
[2] He died on January 18, 1973, as the result of a cycling accident in Fort Lauderdale.
A Surtz Prize is awarded at Loyola each year to "a graduating senior who has excelled as a student and scholar of English literature".