The Rev. Ronald A. Glaude, a Korean War veteran who served as rector of his home parish in rural Connecticut for 28 years, died peacefully on March 22 at 85.
He was born in Putnam, Connecticut, and served on the USS Midway in the Pacific during the Korean War, and afterward, in the Caribbean and Mediterranean on the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt.
He graduated from the University of Connecticut in 1974, and trained for the ministry at Episcopal Divinity School. After a three-year curacy at St. John’s in Stamford, he returned to Brooklyn, Connecticut, in 1980, and served as rector of Trinity Parish until his retirement in 2008.
In Brooklyn, he served for many years on the local housing authority, community services, and hospital boards, and helped to establish a chapter of Habitat for Humanity. He had a strong tenor voice, enjoyed singing in local choirs, and tutored many students at the Pomfret Rectory School. He was trained in 15th-century Russian icon-writing and was a student of Russian history and literature, and Orthodox spirituality.
Glaude is survived by Grace, his wife of 63 years, and four children, 12 grandchildren, and 14 great-grandchildren.
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The Rev. Vernon Donald Hall, a longtime university chaplain and adjunct professor, died March 15 at 74.
A native of Connellsville, Pennsylvania, he was a graduate of St. Vincent College, Mount St. Mary’s Seminary, and the University of Pittsburgh. He was a decorated veteran of the U.S. Army, serving in Louisiana and Germany from 1969 to 1972.
He was ordained a Roman Catholic priest, and served for nearly two decades in the Diocese of Greensburg, Pennsylvania. He was an adjunct professor of religion and sociology at Thiel College and taught in the education department at Duquesne University. He was also chaplain at Seton Hall University in Greensburg, and executive director of Catholic Charities.
Hall was received into the Episcopal Church in 1998 by Bishop Paul Marshall of the Diocese of Bethlehem. He served as rector of Trinity Church in New Castle, Pennsylvania, and of St. Andrew’s, Canfield, and St. Luke’s, Niles, in the Diocese of Ohio.
He is survived by Mary Theresa, his wife of 25 years, two sisters, two brothers, and numerous nieces and nephews.
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The Rev. Canon William John Spaid, who served for 17 years as the Diocese of Western Michigan’s canon to the ordinary, died March 20 at 68.
Spaid grew up in Frederick, Maryland, and after earning degrees in education from Frostburg State University, taught elementary school for seven years. Answering a call to the ministry, he studied at Nashotah House and was ordained to the priesthood in 1987.
He began his ministry as rector of St. Martin of Tours, Kalamazoo, Michigan, while also helping to lead the diocesan youth camp, and serving as a mentor in Education for Ministry. He was a deputy to several General Conventions and served on the team for several CREDO conferences.
Spaid became canon to the ordinary of his diocese in 2002, guiding many parishes through transitions and mentoring numerous candidates for holy orders. In 2019, he became a regional missioner in the diocese and retired in 2021.
He was a devoted gardener and entertainer, with an extensive china collection and a talent for calligraphy and the art of Ukrainian pysanky. Spaid is survived by his partner, Greg Fitzgerald, two children, and four grandchildren.
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The Rev. Canon Frederick F. (Fritz) Kramer, a priest who established ministries to troubled Native American youth and the dying, died March 29 at his home in Newton, Iowa, at 95.
Kramer grew up in Evanston, Illinois, and served in the U.S. Army during World War II in the Philippines and Occupied Japan. After his military service, he graduated from Northwestern University and Berkely Divinity School at Yale.
He was ordained in 1953 and began his ministry on the White Earth Reservation in Minnesota as vicar of Samuel Memorial Church, Naytahwaush, and St. Philip’s, Rice Lake. He was appointed the Diocese of Minnesota’s archdeacon for Indian work, and became an advocate for Native American youth who were sent to reform schools for truancy, which led to establishing the Archdeacon Gilfillan Treatment Center in Bemidji.
In 1966, he became the rector of St. Stephen’s in Newtown, Iowa, and began serving as chaplain at Skiff Medical Center. He helped establish the Hospice of Jasper County and served as a staff chaplain for 20 years. He also served on the local foster care review board, and sponsored the HaThi family as they resettled in the U.S. after the Vietnam War.
Through Rotary International, he hosted guests from many countries at his home, as well as numerous campaign organizers, journalists, and two presidential candidates during primary campaigns. In recognition of his ministry, he was made a canon of the cathedrals in Minneapolis and Des Moines, and was awarded a Doctor of Divinity by the Seminary of the Southwest.
Kramer is survived by Carol, his wife of 65 years, two daughters, and three grandchildren.
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The Rev. Dr. James Fidelis Tuohy, a musician and advocate for the marginalized, died April 8 at 84.
A native of Thurles, County Tipperary, Ireland, Tuohy entered All Hallows Seminary in Dublin at 17 to train as a Roman Catholic mission priest. While working in London one summer during his seminary studies, he earned enough to buy a glossy silver piano accordion that he played for more than half a century.
He was ordained in 1961 and sent to serve as an assistant in parishes in Pensacola, Florida, and Gadsden, Alabama. In Gadsden, a group of Irish Sisters of Mercy worked in parish schools and helped Tuhoy teach Sunday school in a mission church in Fort Payne. Tuhoy and one of the nuns, Elma, then Sister Marion Margherita, eventually fell in love, and after he resigned his ministry, they married.
He became executive director of Interfaith Mission Service in Huntsville and was received into the Episcopal Church as a priest in 1980. He helped to establish a soup kitchen for the homeless in Birmingham while serving at St. Andrew’s Church, where he entertained the diners with his accordion and singing.
He also served as chaplain at the University of Alabama at Birmingham for 12 years, establishing a campus anti-war organization and organizing so many anti-nuclear rallies that he earned an FBI file, which he regarded as a badge of honor.
In 1992, Tuohy became rector of St. Michael and All Angels Church in Anniston, where he helped to establish a local chapter of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays. He served for the final 10 years of his ministry as rector of St. Andrew’s, Montevallo, retiring in 2009.
He was famous for his musical gifts and good humor, and Birmingham’s bar owners would fight over who could get him to play for their St. Patrick’s Day celebrations. Even after his struggles with Alzheimer’s sent him to a memory-care unit, he delighted in belting out “Danny Boy” for his fellow residents.
Tuohy is survived by his wife of 51 years, their two children, and two grandsons.
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The Rev. Dr. John Henry Westerhoff III, a scholar of Christian education, died February 25 at 88.
A native of Paterson, New Jersey, Westerhoff felt a call to ministry as a young man, and following studies at Ursinus College and Harvard Divinity School, he was ordained to the ministry of the United Church of Christ in 1957. He served churches in Maine and Massachusetts, and then worked for the UCC’s Board for Homeland Ministries.
While earning his doctorate in education from Columbia University, he became editor of Colloquy: Education in Church and Society, an influential journal in the field. He lectured at Harvard, and became professor of theology and Christian nurture at Duke Divinity School in 1973. Shortly thereafter, he published the first of several books, the influential Will Our Children Have Faith? He also served for many years as editor of the journal Religious Education.
He was ordained as an Episcopal priest in 1978 and served as an associate at the Chapel of the Cross in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, until he retired from Duke in 1994. He moved to Atlanta and served as interim rector at St. Bartholomew’s Church before moving to St. Luke’s, where he founded the Institute of Pastoral Studies. His final ministry was as a priest associate and resident theologian at St. Anne’s Church in Atlanta. He also served for two years as visiting professor at General Seminary.
Westerhoff is survived by Caroline, his wife of 30 years, five children, and eight grandchildren.