Father Robert B. Head, pastor of St. Martin de Porres Parish, Taylorsville, from 1986 to 1991, died November 6, 1994. He was 54 years old.
Fr. Head was born January 14, 1940 in Kemmerer, Wyoming, the son of Heishel Pete Head and Irene A. Carollo Head. He attended elementary schools in Ventura, Calif.; Frontier, Wyoming; Stansburry, Wyoming; and Gardena, Calif. He graduated from Junipero Serra High School in Gardena, Calif. in 1958. From 1959 to 1963 Fr. Head studied at Chaminade College in Honolulu, Hawaii, graduating with a bachelor's degree. He entered St. Louis University Divinity School in 1971. He did post-graduate work at the University of San Francisco during the summers of 1970, 1971, and 1974, and at the University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana, during the summers of 1972, 1973, and 1974. Fr. Head was ordained a priest for the Marianist Order, June 8, 1974 in Gardena, Calif., by Bishop John J. Ward, then-auxiliary bishop of Los Angeles, Calif. Fr. Head came to the Diocese of Salt Lake City in June 1975, and was incardinated here in January 1977. He served as temporary associate pastor of Notre Dame de Lourdes Parish, Price, from June to September 1975, when he was named administrator of St. Patrick's Parish, Eureka. He was named associate pastor of St. Vincent de Paul Parish, Holladay, in 1977, while continuing to administer St. Patrick's. From August 1977 to June 1978, he served as associate pastor of St. Joseph's Parish, Ogden. Fr. Head returned to Notre Dame de Lourdes Parish, Price, as associate pastor from June 1978 to August 1979, when he was appointed chaplain of the Newman Center at the University of Utah. In 1981 he was named associate pastor of the Cathedral of the Madeleine. The following year he was appointed pastor of St. Pius X Parish, Moab. Fr. Head spent six months studying Spanish in Cuernavaca, Mexico, and in 1985 he rejoined the Marianist order to teach at St. Anthony High School in Wailuki, Hawaii. He returned to the Diocese of Salt Lake City in 1986 to serve first as temporary parochial vicar of St. Martin de Porres Parish. In 1986 he was named pastor of St. Martin's, a post he maintained until he was granted a medical leave of absence in 1991.A memorial service will be celebrated for Fr. Head, Nov. 12 at St. Coleman's Church, Cazadero, Calif. A memorial Mass will be celebrated for him in Salt Lake City at a later date.
In lieu of flowers the family requests that donations be made to the Priests Mutual Benefit Society of the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake, 27 C Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84103.
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