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Father John K. Halbert, M.M., who served in El Salvador and held leadership roles with Maryknoll, died June 6 at Phelps Memorial Hospital in Sleepy Hollow. He was 76.
He was a pastor in El Salvador from 1972 to 1978 and from 1985 to 1989. In 1978 he became the assistant to the superior of Maryknoll's Central America Region. The same year he was elected to the order's general council as vicar general; during his tenure he also served as president of the Maryknoll School of Theology in Ossining from 1982 until 1985, when he was reassigned to El Salvador.
He returned to Maryknoll in 1989 and resumed the presidency of the School of Theology. Later he was the superior of Maryknoll's Retirement Community, 1997-2002.
Born in Drexel Hill, Pa., he entered Maryknoll in 1951. He studied at Maryknoll College in Glen Ellyn, Ill., and held master's degrees in religious education from Maryknoll Seminary, Ossining, and in English from The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.
He was ordained in 1959. In 1961 he became dean of students and associate professor of English literature in Maryknoll College in Glen Ellyn. He returned to Maryknoll in Ossining in 1967 and did administrative work before his assignment to El Salvador.
A Funeral Mass was offered June 11 at Queen of Apostles Chapel at Maryknoll, with burial at Maryknoll Cemetery.
