I actually wrote up a response to your thoughts about how one’s works can allow the person to reach heaven without the faith that goes with it. For some reason ACM did not save my response and so was not posted. However, I would suggest looking at Monday’s readings (from October 19th) as well as the excellent reflection Mary Ortwein did on the subject of grace. I think it will help with your question.

From my point of view we receive Grace from God as a free gift. This grace, if received with an open heart, should lead us to want to perform good works for others. For faith without works is dead. But works without faith denies Christ and therefore denies the resurrection. And without the resurrection we are lost.

“Like the man who approached Jesus and used the word “good,” perhaps without giving it much thought, we too need to be careful how we use and define our terms. As Jesus answered, “No one is good – except God alone” (Mark 10:18; Luke 18:19). Do all “good” people go to heaven? Since no one is good as defined by God, the answer is, “No.” Those who enter heaven do so not on the basis of merit, but on the basis of God’s grace as bestowed by Jesus Christ. We can’t work our way to heaven or claim to be without sin (1 John 1:8). Instead, we must humbly submit to God, turn from our wrong behavior, and turn to Christ for salvation.”

and from Ephesians 2:8-9
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

But not works alone…with faith:

From James 2:24
“You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.”

And James 2:14-26
“What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? 17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”

Not by faith alone nor by works alone. Faith without works is dead but works without acknowledgement that God is the creator of all things denies the Creator and denies the Son, and therefore the Resurrection. And without the resurrection our faith is nothing.

That belief is contrary to the teachings of the Catholic Church, Jesus’ Church. The Catholic Church teaches Faith and Works, and not Faith alone. While the Lord ultimately decides, according to the Church’s teachings, if Professor Radisson’s works or actions reflected his belief in God then he is likely to go to heaven.