Peter Gounis

A letter from Pete:

Baptized into the Hope of Christ’s Resurrection, Pete died on May 12, 2025. He will miss his devoted and loving wife, Kathy, until we are together again. His loving and caring daughters and son-in-law, Julie, Elaine and Karl, and Katie. Pete’s grandchildren, Kyle (Mariah), Matthew, Kayla (Loren), Lauren (Zack), Kurtis, Joe, Addie; great-grandchildren, Cailey, Zoey, Noah, Cian, Ronan, and a new baby Utley on the way. It’s been a great life and I want to thank everyone who helped make it great for me, his parents, and parents-in-law, Grandma Bea and Grandfather Ed, Gramma Retta and Papa George, his sister, Pat (Gary Kolkmann) and brother, Phil, along with Robin and Bob, his nieces and nephew, Krissy, Theresa, and Aaron and their families. Thanks too to all of you good folks along the way who put up with me! It’s been great. I hope to see you all again sometime, somewhere.

Hang in there! - Pete

Peter Gounis retired from Community Loving Care Hospice, LHC, where he served as Lead chaplain and Director of Pastoral Care since 2003. Prior to that he served as pastoral associate, Director of Religious Education, youth minister, parish finance administrator and other pastoral positions from 1983 until the present. In addition, he has conducted retreats, counseled couples, families, individuals and teens, provided spiritual direction, as well as developing parish and youth programs including Sacramental preparation programs for marriage, Confirmation and education. He has served at Sacred Heart Parish in Florissant, Ste. Genevieve Parish in Ste. Genevieve, St. Paul Parish in Fenton, North American Martyrs Parish and St. Ferdinand Parish in Florissant. He currently serves St. Ferdinand Parish in retired status.. In the Archdiocese of Saint Louis, he participated in the initial organization of the Deaconate Committee and served as a member and later as chairman of that committee. In addition, he served on the Archdiocesan Committee for the Permanent Diaconate, the Archdiocesan Pastoral Council, Archdiocesan Committee for Youth and the Archdiocesan Committee for the Reintegration of Resigned Priests and Religious as well as serving as a committee member for Archdiocesan Synod 10. He has been a member of the Florissant and Wentzville Rotary Clubs and served as president of the Florissant club as well as other offices in that club and Rotary district committees. He has served as a board member for TEAM (The Emergency Assistance Ministry) in North County and worked with St. Louis Tax Assistance Program. He was a chaplain for the "Garden of Innocents" and the St. Louis Airport Interfaith chaplaincy. He has been a speaker for local and national organizations.

He was married in 1970 to Kathleen and they have three daughters, Julie, Elaine and Kate, many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He is a deacon in the Archdiocese of Saint Louis, ordained in 1983. He attended UMSL from 1963 to 1966, the Paul VI Institute from 1979 to 1985 and Kenrick Seminary for post ordination courses. He was given the faculties to preach in 1985 and received his CPE certificate in 2005 from the St. Luke's Episcopal-Presbyterian Clinical Pastoral Education Center in Chesterfield, Mo. He has participated in seminars and workshops pertaining to Bereavement, Group Dynamics, Spiritual Direction, Liturgy, Crisis Counseling, Family Counseling, Management, Youth Ministry and Adult Education. He has given seminars, presentations and workshops on Sacramental preparation, Liturgy, bereavement, collaborative ministry and other topics.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations can be made to Garden of Innocents, where Pete was volunteer Chaplain: P.O. Box 236, St. Charles, MO, United States, Missouri 63302.

Pete's services will be live streamed. To view the live streaming Go to the St. Ferdinand website: stferdinandstl.org ; Look for “Join Us In Prayer”; Click on “Live Stream Mass”; The stream will begin at 9:50am and the Mass begins at 10:00am.