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Father Robley E. Whitson, who served at parish assignments in Katonah and the Bronx, died June 12. He was 88.
Cardinal Dolan will offer the Funeral Mass in the chapel of the John Cardinal O’Connor Pavilion in Riverdale, the Bronx, Thursday, June 20, at 11 a.m. Msgr. Robert Stern, a retired priest of the archdiocese, will deliver the homily. A wake will take place there from 10 to 11 a.m. that day.
Father Whitson served as a parochial vicar at St. Mary of the Assumption parish, Katonah, 1959-1960, and St. Jerome’s, the Bronx, 1958-1959. He also had a summer assignment at the Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico in Ponce, 1958. He went on a leave of absence in 1960.
Father Whitson later served as chairman of theology department at Fordham University.
At the time of his death, Father Whitson was residing at the Edward Cardinal Egan Pavilion of the St. John Vianney Priests Residence in Riverdale.
Msgr. Stern, a classmate of Father Whitson’s at St. Joseph’s Seminary, Dunwoodie, recalled the priest as an “original person, who was an interesting mixture of intellectual talent, artistic ability with a capacity to think outside the box.”
Father Whitson worked to bring “mutual understanding among different religions,” Msgr. Stern added.
Born in San Francisco, Father Whitson earned a bachelor’s degree from Fordham University and also studied at Yale University. He studied for the priesthood at St. Joseph’s Seminary, Dunwoodie, and was ordained by Cardinal Francis Spellman in St. Patrick’s Cathedral May 31, 1958.
Father Whitson will be cremated.
