John Moffitt
John Joseph Moffitt, 77, of Medical Lake, Wash., died March 11, 2004.
Born March 25, 1926, at Tampa, he was the son of Dr. James T. and Ellen (Nellie) Moffitt.
He grew up in Tampa and graduated from high school in 1944. He served in the U.S. Army Air Corps as a high speed radio operator, receiving his military training at Scott Field, Ill., and Sioux Falls, S.D., in 1945.
He later was stationed in Brazil in a communications network covering areas from Miami to Dakar, Africa, and Puerto Rico.
He attended St. Joseph's College, Webster Grove, Mo., and St. Clement's Novitiate, DeSoto, Mo., in 1950. From there he entered Immaculate Conception Seminary in Oconomowoc, Wis., and was ordained a Redemptorist priest in 1956.
The ceremony for his ordination into the Roman Catholic priesthood was held July 2, 1956, in Tampa. After his ordination he was assigned to Brazil where he spent 17 years in the Amazon. He was in charge of a parish of 50,000 people and 32 villages. He spoke fluent Portuguese and traveled by canoe, boat, and jeep. He also was a ham radio operator.
In 1974, he left the priesthood after receiving special dispensation from the Vatican. He moved to Denver, Colo., where he was welcomed into the home of Joanne Rietcheck and her children, Larry, Jan, and Joe.
While in Denver he was employed by the U.S. Postal Service as a letter carrier where he worked for 20 years. He also worked with Joanne Rietcheck authoring a book entitled, "The Calling."
Upon retirement from the postal service in March 1999, he moved to Medical Lake, Wash., to be near his friends, Jan and Frank Neumann, Larry and Gail Rietcheck, and Joe Rietcheck and Lynn Komarck, who cared for him until his death.
He was preceded in death by his parents; a brother, Dr. James Moffitt; and three sisters, Corinne Kleopfer, Mildred Hicks, and Barbara Kendall.
Survivors include two brothers, Thomas Moffitt of Taft, Calif., and Frank Moffitt of Marion; two sisters, Mary Ellen McCarthy of Saint David, Ariz., and Aileen Corbisiero of San Antonio, Texas.
A memorial fund was established with St. Ann Catholic Church, Medical Lake, Wash.
