Fr. Richard John

John, Fr. Richard T (Dick), OSC. First child of Joseph and Elizabeth (Hoy) John, born May 30, 1921, in Long Prairie, MN. Attended Crosier Seminary in Onamia, MN, 1935-40. Entered the Crosier novitiate in 1940, making his first profession of vows in 1941. Was ordained to the priesthood as a Crosier on December 21, 1946, in Hastings, NE. Earned an MS in mathematics from the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, IN, and studied courses in physics at the University of Minnesota. His scholastic assignments were as a teaching fellow at Notre Dame, a teacher at Crosier Seminary, and a member of the philosophy faculties at the Crosier House of Studies and St. Francis College in Fort Wayne, IN, before completing his teaching career as a professor at the Beda College in Rome. Across a varied life, Fr. Dick served as business procurator for the Crosiers in Onamia, as well as the Prior for the Crosier Community at Lake Wawasee, IN, before being elected in 1969 to the office of Provincial for the Crosier Order in the United States and its missions in Papua, Indonesia, being re-elected to serve until 1978. Additionally, Fr. Dick served the parishes of Holy Family in McGregor, St. Mary's in Milaca (as both the founding Pastor and a returning Pastor many years later), and St. Odilia in Shoreview. He also served the international Crosier Order as Procurator General in Rome while also being the Rector at the Basilica of St. George in Velabro from 1979-85. His favorite hobbies included earning a pilot's license and flying around the United States as part of his leadership travels, and working with wood as a craftsman, including the design of his own burial casket. Fr. Dick is survived by two sisters, Mary (Peter) McKenna and Jacqueline (John) Brown, and three brothers, Harry, James (Carol), and Ted (Mary), the large relations of the John family, as well as by his Crosier confreres in Religious Life. The Funeral Mass will be celebrated at 11:30 AM on Saturday, January 15, at the Crosier Priory Church in Onamia. Reception of the Body will be at 8:30 AM with the Office for the Dead, with vigil time to follow. A lunch will follow the Funeral, with private burial in the Priory cemetery. Memorials are preferred to the Crosier Fathers and Brothers.