Father Gilbert Walser, C.P., St. Paul of the Cross Province (1902-1988)

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Born in Union City, New Jersey on June 18, 1902, he professed his vows as a Passionist on September 12, 1926. He was ordained on May 22, 1932. Father Walser preached in the Byzantine Rite in the late 1930s. He was Vice-Rector at St. Michael’s Monastery, Union City from 1942 to 1945. From 1948 to 1961 Father Walser was Retreat Director at Our Mother of Sorrows Monastery, West Springfield, Massachusetts. In 1961 he was chosen to supervise the building of a new retreat house in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts He stayed there for six years. In 1971 Father Walser agreed to move to Baltimore and become chaplain at Jenkins Memorial Nursing Home. He was chaplain there for seventeen years. At seventy-eight years old he took the Clinical Pastoral Education Course. In 1987 health forced amputation of his leg. He was a resident of Jenkins when he died.