The following story first appeared in the Summer 2006 Glenmary Challenge.
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Gentleman, Friend, Confident
Quiet and unassuming, he loved his priesthood and the people of the home missions.
By Father Gus Guppenberger

PENNINGTON GAP, VA.: Father Bob Healy in 1965 with families eager to plant a new church

Why don’t we ever see you in the Glenmary magazine?” Father Bob Healy related that question about himself to me in the 1980s after returning from a visit to his home state of Massachusetts. The question was raised by several priests who had been his classmates at Boston College High School.

That was one of the first things that came to mind as I began to write this remembrance of Father Bob who died March 18 at the Glenmary Residence in Cincinnati. He was 83.

I had given a quick, rather flippant answer at the time to the question: “Bob, you are not flashy enough!” We were pastors of neighboring missions in Western North Carolina; he was in Murphy, I was in Andrews.

I recall being asked while shopping one day if I was the priest who talked on the radio. This Tarheel told me how much he appreciated the straight-forward talks that made so much sense to him. He was, of course, referring to Father Bob, who had a radio ministry in each of his missions that had a local station.

And he served in many mission areas: Fayette, Ala.; Franklin and Murphy, N.C.; Appalachia and Clintwood, Va.; Mifflinton, Penn.; Mt. Pleasant, Texas; Franklin and Russellville, Ky.; and Waynesboro, Ga. He also served as superior of Glenmary’s House of Formation in Fairfield, Conn., while working to promote Glenmary.

Father Bob brought his love of baseball to all his assignments and used it as his “foot-in-the-door,” as he said in a past interview. By joining the local baseball team, he was able to introduce himself to the community. In rural counties with small Catholic populations, he was the first Catholic priest many had ever met—let alone played baseball with! And he was a good player, leading one local team to a championship.

Father Bob was also committed to prison ministry. In many Glenmary mission areas, small prison camps provided the labor for road repairs. These camps were where you could find him in the evening or on a Sunday afternoon, providing a kindly, listening ear and moral support to the incarcerated. He continued this ministry as a senior member in South Georgia, regularly visiting at the Georgia State Prison in Reidsville.

And Father Bob was a teacher. I remember a high school student from Murphy who told me once how much she appreciated his religion classes for teenagers. She said he gave them practical answers so they could respond to the questions of non-Catholic classmates.

He always stocked up on the free booklets of information about Catholic beliefs and practices available from the Knights of Columbus. He kept a supply (a closetful, actually) of various booklets in order to have a ready answer for anyone of any age who had a question.

No matter where he was—in the pulpit, on a ball field or golf course, at the auto shop, picking up the mail at the post office, dropping off a column for the local paper, at a diocesan meeting or a continuing education workshop—Father Bob Healy knew who he was: a Catholic gentleman, priest of the Roman Catholic Church, friend and confidant of anyone in need.

Father Bob was not flashy enough to warrant many photo stories in the Glenmary Challenge. But, as the saying goes, “Still waters run deep.” Father Bob was quiet and unassuming with a deep love of the Catholic Church, of his Glenmary priesthood, and of the people he met and served in the home missions.