Another article about my uncle.

'Father Mac' changed many lives for the better

By Hector Gutierrez, Rocky Mountain News

December 21, 2006

The Rev. John D. McCormick couldn't stand to be referred to as Father John.

"There are too many Father Johns," he would tell his congregation and staff.

Call him Father Mac instead, he insisted.

For the past 31 years that nickname stuck for the thousands of his parishioners and parochial school students that the Rev. McCormick served in the metro area and Colorado Springs.

When he died Dec. 2 of prostate cancer, his congregation remembered and praised him as Father Mac, the jovial Catholic priest who touched their lives. He was 57 when he died at the rectory of the Nativity of Our Lord Catholic Church in Broomfield.

Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput presided over the funeral service for the Rev. McCormick on Monday at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.

"When he was so sick and dying, I said, 'John, you have touched the lives of thousands of people in their lifetime and many at the most desperate times of their lives,' " remembered Susan Pamperin, the reverend's sister, of one of their final conversations together.

"Everybody had a beautiful story: 'He baptized my grandchildren. He buried my husband. He helped me when my son was killed in an accident.' I heard so many stories."

In addition to overseeing the church's activities and the community's 2,700 families, the Rev. McCormick helped supervise the Nativity of Our Lord Catholic School, where he helped lead a staff teaching 490 students from grades K through eight, and another couple of hundred youngsters who attended the church's religious academy.

One of his last wishes was fulfilled before he died, his friends and family said. His church held its first gala fundraiser on Nov. 18 for the Nativity of Our Lord School Foundation, a scholarship program named after the Rev. McCormick that would help pay the tuition for families who couldn't afford it.

The Rev. McCormick's deteriorating physical condition prevented him from attending the gala he helped organize.

"It was difficult for him because he couldn't attend," said Maureen Epson, the business administrator for the Nativity of Our Lord Church. "But as sick as he was he was so thrilled of the success of the gala."

The Rev. McCormick was born March 13, 1949, in York, Neb. His family moved to Colorado Springs when he was 8, and he attended St. Mary's High School. After graduating from high school, the Rev. McCormick, a math whiz, enrolled at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs and planned to pursue a career in engineering.

His career in engineering went out the window after a year, Pamperin, his sister, said.

"After one year of college he discerned his vocation to be the priesthood," she said.

Pamperin said she doesn't recall any major life event that led to her brother's metamorphosis to the priesthood, though, she remembered that when they were children he often acted out the role of a priest and she would play the role of a nun. Her family, she said, were devout Catholics.

"He just felt a calling," Pamperin said.

The Rev. McCormick joined St. Thomas Seminary in Denver in 1969 and became an ordained priest on May 31, 1975. In his first assignment, the Rev. McCormick was parochial vicar at St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church in Arvada. He later was transferred to Corpus Christi Catholic Church in Colorado Springs.

The Rev. McCormick eventually moved back to Denver, where he was an associate pastor at St. Thomas Moore Catholic Church.

His first assignment as a pastor - in which he was in charge of church operations - occurred in 1985 when he was assigned to St. Theresa's Catholic Church in Frederick. As the head pastor at St. Theresa's, he also was responsible for St. Scholastica Catholic Church in Erie and Guardian Angels Catholic Church in Mead.

In 1988, he was transferred to St. Anne's Catholic Church in Arvada where he led the parish for 13 years, the longest pastorate of his priesthood. While at St. Anne's, he oversaw the construction of the much- needed community center. Against his wishes the congregation named the facility the McCormick Center.

"He wasn't in favor of it, and they said, 'Too bad, we're doing it anyway,' " said Donna Farrell, a close friend of the reverend.

In June 2001, the Rev. McCormick was reassigned for the final time to Broomfield's Nativity of Our Lord Catholic Church.

"Father John McCormick was the consummate people person," Epson said. "He touched people's lives, and people who were having difficulty, and people who had questions about their faith, as soon as they met Father Mac, they would change for the better."

Although he was stricken with cancer and undergoing chemotherapy, he vowed not to let up in his vocation. He said as much in his last letter he wrote in the church bulletin to his flock: "I decided to remain at Nativity as your pastor as long as I am able. You are my family and I can think of no better place to spend my final time as a priest. Each and every one of you are a blessing in my life."

In addition to Pamperin, the Rev. McCormick's survivors include two brothers, Patrick, of Littleton, and William, of Petersburg, Alaska; four nieces; and one nephew. He was preceded in death by his parents, John McCormick Sr. and Joan McCormick, and a brother, Charles.

Donations can be made to the McCormick Family Scholarship Fund, the Nativity of Our Lord School, 900 W. Midway Blvd., Broomfield, CO 80020.