RIP: 31/08/2022 - Milwaukee
Fr. Gregory Michael Coulthard was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on 16 March 1938. After attending St. Monica Parish school in Whitefish Bay, he entered Salvatorian Seminary in St. Nazianz, where he became acquainted with the Salvatorians. He entered the Society’s Novitiate in Colfax, Iowa, where he made his first profession of vows on 8 September 1959. He completed his seminary studies and was ordained a priest in the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception on 3 June 1967. For the next six years, Fr. Gregory was teacher, librarian, and Dean of Students at St. Pius X Seminary in Galt, California. He then spent three years with the US Air Force and was certified as a chaplain. In that same period, he was also able to be engaged in other pastoral and educational ministries and he served as the USA Province’s Director of Vocations in Milwaukee. In 1989, he was the English-speaking secretary for the Society’s Generalate in Rome. In 1991, he was assigned in pastoral ministry, and he was then asked to serve as Spiritual Director of the Salvatorian Centre in New Holstein, Wisconsin, a position he held until 2020. In this capacity, he was editor for HOPE newsletter. During these years he ministered in several parishes. He had retired with the rank of Colonel from the US Air Force in 1998, and in 2008 when he turned 70, he decided to “semi-retire” from other ministries. In 2009, Fr. Gregory accepted the invitation to work with the International Salvatorian Formation Community in the Philippines – as a “wisdom figure” to the students, but also to help them with their English studies. He returned to the USA in 2017 and retired at Alexian Village in Milwaukee. After a sad fall, he was rushed to the hospital and underwent surgery, but in the days that followed, his health continued to decline until his death in the early morning hours on 31 August. He was 84 years old and had been a Salvatorian for almost 63 years.
