Robert W. Thrasher ’57 ScM

Robert W. Thrasher ’57 ScM, of Springfield, Mass.; Sept. 1. He attended St. John’s Seminary in Brighton from 1957 to 1962, was ordained to the priesthood on Jan. 27, 1962, and served his first mass at Holy Trinity Church in Greenfield, Mass. Before retiring on June 1, 2005, Father Thrasher served as an assistant at St. Mary Parish in Orange from February to May of 1962, after which he served on the faculty at Cathedral High School teaching physics for three years from 1962 to 1965. He served as curate at the former St. Patrick Church in Chicopee from 1965 to 1970; at the former St. Mary Church in Springfield from 1970 to 1974; at Our Lady of the Valley Parish in Sheffield from June to September of 1974 and again from June to August of 1975. He was appointed a notary in the Tribunal of the Springfield Diocese in 1973. He studied at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., from 1974 to 1978, earning a canon law degree. He served as an assistant pastor at St. Michael’s Cathedral for a year and was pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Shelburne Falls from 1979 to 1982. He was appointed vice chancellor of the diocese in 1981, diocesan consultor from 1982 to 1983 and again from 1984 to 1989, and pro-synodal judge from 1983 to 1993. He was a member of the first presbyteral council and served three three-year terms from 1985 to 1994. He also was on the St. Michael’s Residence board of directors. He served as administrator of the former St. Bartholomew Parish in Bondsville and as pastor of the former Holy Name Parish in Holyoke from 1995 to 2005. He is survived by two sisters; a cousin; and nieces and nephews.