Dear family and friends,
I LOVE THIS STORY! Dad’s friend, Father Dunn was an awesome man and dad’s description of him is spot on. Father Dunn was one of those people who communicated instant trust and friendship on first meeting him. You will too, when you read dad’s depiction of Fr. Dunn.
I hope you enjoy this story as much as I.
Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah,
David T
p.s. Any comments are more than welcome in the “Leave a Reply” section at the end of this story.
“Fr. Dunn Is A Survivor”
By Don Tschirhart
Excerpted from the unpublished book “It’s a Wonderful World II: A Retired Reporter Looks At Life“
Fr. Dunn is a Survivor
While walking on Mill Street toward Dryden Village, I suddenly heard a pickup truck coming up behind me.
Without turning I knew instantly who it was. With the big band sound of John Philip Sousa’s Stars and Stripes Forever resounding from the trucks’ speakers it was the Rev. John Francis Dunn in his CCC — Canary, Clerical Conveyance — a bright yellow pickup truck familiar to most residents of eastern Lapeer County.
A wave (more like a salute) and the reverend continued on his way to St. Cornelius Church to say a daily Mass. Unconventional? Sure.
His delightful Irish smile and sense of humor are what people expect of this Catholic priest. His faith in God, his church and people were upper-most in his life. And he passed on his beliefs to everyone he met.
I remember a few years ago watching him sitting in the convertible as Imlay City’s Man of the Year. It was obvious he was embarrassed by the attention. Yet I could see the pride that he had been singled out for the honor.
Fr. Dunn loved being a Catholic priest. Each time he said Mass the sanctuary for him became heaven. Most of his short homilies meant more than an hour of preaching. Always, people walked away from Fr. Dunn in the confessional with a satisfied smile on their faces.
Other stories in this and other Lapeer newspapers will tell you about Fr. Dunn’s life. Born to John and Josephine Dunn of Mt. Morris near Flint, raised in Birmingham during the Great Depression, in the Navy from 1940 to 1946, ordained a priest in 1954, retired pastor of Sacred Heart Church, Imlay City, and St. Cornelius Church, Dryden, builder of the Mercy Casa Maria Senior Residence in Imlay City.
What the facts don’t tell you is the influence Fr. Dunn had on the world around him. His former altar boys visit with him often. Parishioners visit and take him to lunch often. A group will occasionally ask him to chair a Bible study.
To those who know him well, Fr. Dunn is a saint. Even though he can no longer walk and is confined to a wheel chair and is in pain most of the time his life is a living prayer.
He reminds me of the late Rev. Bill Cunningham, my long-time friend and founder of the Detroit civil rights group called Focus: HOPE. (Fr. Bill, who died of cancer a few years ago, still owes me a bottle of Chivas Regal Scotch for a bet he lost. I expect to get it when I pass through the Golden Gate, and expect Fr. Dunn to be there with his hand out for a serving.)
Worldly men, both of them? They knew they were human, as God made them. They even said, “Damn!” and “Hell” and maybe a few other chosen expletives. But both loved life. And most important, they loved God and God’s people, all of them.
Photographs and paintings of famous navy warships crowd the walls in Fr. Dunn’s room at Lourdes assisted living home in Waterford Township.
A Navy gunner’s mate in World War II he served on the USS Anne Arundel, a tank transport that unloaded tanks and soldiers on the beaches of Sicily. He and the ship were off the invasion beaches of Normandy in northern France on D-Day.
“Yup! Me and Eisenhower won the war in Europe,” Fr. Dunn proudly tells friends.
I think it was his six years in the Navy combined with the influence of his beloved mother, that led Fr. Dunn to Sacred Heart Seminary in 1946.
His mother’s picture is on the wall over the television set and he prays with her daily. She taught him to pray and live a good life when he was young, and he says he is forever grateful. The horrible scenes he saw during the war no doubt played a role in his life and the desire to light a candle rather than curse the darkness.
What a mind. Give him a thought, and he’d recite a poem he might have memorized decades before. My favorite is the poem about beards. I once asked him who wrote the famous saying, “No man is an island” and right off he said, “John Donne in the 17th century.”
The Rev. John Francis Dunn’s life is certainly not “an island.” He spreads his love for people everywhere he goes.
It’s that love during his 50 years as an ordained priest that was celebrated at two churches.
I’m sure Fr. Dunn, never wanted “all that fuss.” If he had known, he probably would have used one of his favorite Navy sayings: “Belay that!”
