Fr. William Winters, who served the Province as a teacher of theology, a formator of new friars, and as a pastor, died on July 29 in Yonkers, N.Y. He was 87.

He was born in Brooklyn on July 25, 1938, to William Henry Winters and Vivian Mary Gormley, and grew up a block away from the friars at St. Michael Parish, Brooklyn. He graduated from Glenclyffe High School, the Capuchin minor seminary in Garrison, N.Y., and entered the novitiate on Aug. 31, 1956. He professed his perpetual vows on Sept. 1, 1960, and was ordained to the priesthood on Nov. 28, 1964. He went to Europe for two years to study theology at the University of Innsbruck and Institute Catholique of Paris.

Back in the United States, Father Bill commenced an academic career at Capuchin Theological Seminary in Garrison as professor of theology and prefect of studies for clerical friars. He also taught at Maryknoll School of Theology, Ossining, N.Y., and St. Joseph Seminary, Yonkers. In 1973 he transferred from Garrison to the house of studies at St. Anthony Friary, Hudson, N.H., where he was guardian and provincial director of formation. In 1976 he moved to the Diocese of Portland, Maine, where for a decade he was episcopal vicar for religious and director of the diocesan office of ministry to priests. After a sabbatical year at Gregorian University, Rome, he was elected to the provincial council in 1987. During his term as definitor he was the guardian and director of an interprovincial postulancy program at St. Lawrence Friary in Yonkers.

In 1990 he moved to St. Joseph the Worker Parish in East Patchogue, N.Y. Except for six years as pastor at St. Fidelis Friary in Interlaken, N.Y. (2002-08), Father Bill would spend the next three decades at St. Joseph the Worker as parochial vicar, fraternal vicar, and senior friar. Gifted with a deep memory of the history of the Province, Father Bill composed several necrologies of the lives of our beloved departed friars in recent years. In 2015, he was one of several priest friars of the Province to be named a Missionary of Mercy for Pope Francis’ extraordinary jubilee year of mercy. Being a Missionary of Mercy gave Father Bill a special commission to extend the healing grace of Christ to others through the sacrament of reconciliation. He retired to St. Clare Friary in Yonkers in 2020. 

He is survived by a brother, Stephen; a nephew, Vincent J. Winters; a niece, Patricia Waldner; and other loved ones.

At the funeral Mass on Aug. 2, homilist Fr. John McHugh described how Father Bill conformed himself to the biblical pattern of discipleship when he joined the Capuchins. Like the disciples, he heard Jesus’ call, he left everything, and with the friars he became part of a community of grace, service, prayer, Word and sacrament. Meditating on the Transfiguration of Christ, he extolled Father Bill for being grounded in the eternal and transcendent God while going forth to share the beauty and wisdom he found with others. “I’m certain that Bill’s wisdom is still reverberating and bringing peace to the lives of many people,” he said.