Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Fr. Tom

Fr. Tom McDevitt was the first priest for the St. John's Student Parish at Michigan State University. He served as pastor there for over 30 years. He was the pastor there from 1987, when I moved to Michigan, until 2000. He performed my first marriage there in 1990. You could hear his strong influence in many ways. If you missed him in person, you could hear his style in Fr. Mark's homilies. In many ways he reminded me of my Aunt Alice. He passed away Monday after a very brief illness. I won't cry as much as I did when she died, but I certainly have cried.

1 comment:

Dr. Nuke said...

There's a bunch of things I won't forget about Fr. Tom, either; among them:
- his excellent enunciation (very helpful for a German shmuck being new to the U.S.) in his encouraging homilies and
- him singing "You satisfy the hungry heart" while distributing communion on his farewell mass at St. John's.
Rest in peace, Fr. Tom.