Fr. William C. Dyer

DYER, Fr. William C. Fr. William C. Dyer died Thursday (August 21, 2008), in Washington, D.C. He was born on January 1, 1942, in Torrington, to the late William Cecil and Elizabeth Barnes Dyer of Norfolk. He was a graduate of the Gilbert School in Winsted and received his B.A. from The College of William and Mary in Virginia. In 1963 he joined the Society of Missionaries of Africa, a French Catholic order, and began his studies in theology at St. Joseph's Seminary in Onchiota, NY. He earned a licentiate in theology from the University of Strasbourg in Strasbourg, France, and was ordained to the priesthood at his home parish in Norfolk in 1970. Over the next thirty-six years he served as a missionary in a number of African countries including Zaire, Ivory Coast, Tanzania, and Kenya. At the time of his death he was serving as the assistant provincial of the North American Province of the Missionaries of Africa. He is survived by three sisters, Shirley Robbins of Wilton, Dorothy Dodd of Seymour, TN, and Ann Macdonald of West Yarmouth, MA; one brother, George Dyer of Norfolk; and several nieces and nephews. Funeral services will be held at Ascension Church in Bowie, MD, on Wednesday, August 27 at 11 a.m. Interment will be in Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Silver Spring, MD.