Funeral services for Father Richard Gleason, associate pastor of St. Augustine Catholic Church for the past 12 years, will be Thursday morning at 11 at the church on Washington Boulevard.
He was 71 years old when he died unexpectedly last Wednesday evening.
Viewing will be on Wednesday evening at 6:30 at the church followed by recitation of the rosary at 7:15.
According to a member of the parish, here is what happened, as relayed by Sister Maria, the last teaching nun to retire at St. Augustine School.
After saying the 5:30 Mass on Wednesday at St. Augustine, Father Richard, as he was known,
walked over to the rectory. He told the administrator that he was suffering from shortness of breath.
She summoned the paramedics. By the time they arrived, however, he had suffered a fatal heart attack after receiving the last rites of the church.
Another member of St. Augustine had this memory:
“The fact that Father Richard was Irish especially endeared him to the nuns since all of them came
from the Emerald Isle.
“He often came to play bingo at the summer parish fiesta.
“One time in the early morning when he met a friend at the rectory door, Father Richard was wearing a Notre Dame University shirt.
“‘I didn’t know you had gone to Notre Dame,’ the friend said.
“‘I didn’t,’ Father Richard said. ‘I wasn’t smart enough to get in.’”
Father Richard was ordained a priest in 1967, and he served all 46 years in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
