RIP: 18/05/2023 - Chandler, Arizona
Fr. Joseph Gabriel Wambach was born in Englewood, New Jersey, on 3 September 1938. After primary and secondary school, he began studies at Jordan Seminary in Menominee, Michigan. In 1959, he entered the Society’s Novitiate in Colfax, Iowa, where he made his profession of vows on 8 September 1960. He completed his college education at Divine Savior Seminary in Lanham, Maryland, and Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, in 1962. He finished his initial formation, being ordained a priest in St. Francis Xavier Church in Phoenix on 9 June 1967. From 1968 to 1973, Fr. Joseph ministered at parishes in Phoenix, he taught Religion and served as a chaplain in different hospitals and in a local detention home. In late 1973, he enrolled at the Naval Ed. Training Center in Newport, Rhode Island. When his time there was completed, he embarked on a twenty-year long career as a military chaplain with the U.S. Navy, serving in place around the world. When Fr. Joseph retired from the U.S. Navy in 1993, he had attained the rank of Lieutenant Commander. Although retired from the military, Fr. Joseph continued serving in different parishes, making pastoral visits to homebound people, to patients in local hospitals, and to residents in nursing homes. He loved ministering to people! In September 2022, his health needs were becoming more pressing, and Fr. Joseph moved to a senior living facility in Chandler. In early May 2023, he suffered a stroke and was hospitalized. He was placed in hospice care, and he died peacefully on 18 May 2023, at the age of 84. He had been a Salvatorian for 62 years.
