HAZEL PARK — Fr. Robert Williams is remembered as a salt-of-the-earth priest who handled canonical cases and pastoral duties with a straightforwardness that was admired by friends and strangers alike.
Whether it was processing annulment cases or making late-night calls to the hospital, Fr. Williams always answered with, “I’ll be there,” and served the people of God when they were in need, said Connie Grden, director of religious education at St. Justin-St. Mary Magdalen Parish in Hazel Park, who knew Fr. Williams ("Fr. Bob," as she calls him) for more than 30 years.
“One of the best ways to sum up the kind of man he was is, when he liked something, he didn’t just like something, he became passionate about it,” Grden told Detroit Catholic. “He was passionate about the parish, passionate about friends and family, passionate about traveling, passionate about good food. There were not a lot of grey areas. You knew it meant a lot to him if he liked something or someone.”
Fr. Williams died Oct. 28. He was 69.
Fr. Williams spent most of his priestly ministry between the Metropolitan Tribunal in the archdiocesan curia and serving the faithful in Hazel Park, first as pastor of St. Justin Parish and then at the merged St. Justin-St. Mary Magdalen Parish.
He was able to balance the two roles by relying on a trusted team of parishioners and parish staff to manage day-to-day operations at the parish while he was practicing canon law at the tribunal, a testament to his leadership and pastoral skills, said Richard Garska, a member of St. Justin-St. Mary Magdalen’s parish council, finance team and transition team.
“He’d be downtown during the daytime, and if need, he’d come up here for a funeral; he was great at balancing both,” Garska said. “He relied on people here to step up for the daily functions of the parish as far as maintenance was concerned. I would have everything set up with liturgies so that he didn’t have to get here early to get things ready for a Mass.”
Robert Williams was born to Jack and Estelle (Stathkis) Williams on Aug. 29, 1955, in Highland Park.
He was ordained by Cardinal Edmund C. Szoka of Detroit on Dec. 11, 1982, and went on to serve associate pastor assignments at St. Raymond Parish in Detroit (1982-83), St. Lawrence Parish in Utica (1983-84) and St. Rene Goupil Parish in Sterling Heights (1985-88).
After his associate pastoral assignments, Fr. Williams was assigned to be pastor of St. Justin Parish in Hazel Park in 1993, where he became imbedded in the community, including joining the Hazel Park Police Department as a reserve officer and chaplain, retiring with the rank of lieutenant, always present at the Memorial Day parade and organizing services for first responders who lost their lives in the line of duty.
In 1990, he began his work at the Metropolitan Tribunal, working the church’s court system and adjudicating cases surrounding annulments and transfers between the Eastern and Latin rites of the Catholic Church for the purposes of matrimony.
Fr. Williams led the transition for the merger between St. Justin Parish and St. Mary Magdalen Parish in Hazel Park in 2013, encouraging parishioners in both communities to identify with both locations.
“When the pastor at St. Mary Magdalen was leaving, Fr. Bob was asked if he would consider doing that merger, and he didn’t hesitate,” Grden said. “The way the merger happened went beyond anyone’s expectations; he made it so smooth. He said we were one parish with two campuses. We blended the parish council, the finance council, everything, even the religious education program. I believe it went so well because of his personality; we did it because we believed in him and felt it would make us stronger. We trusted him because he trusted us.”
Fr. Williams organized St. Justin-St. Mary Magdalen parishioners to cook Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter dinners for the Hazel Park Police Department personnel who were on call during the holidays, a tradition that continues to this day, and always made a point to recognize visitors to the parish.
Juggling the roles and responsibilities of serving on the tribunal and the work needed to be done at St. Justin-St. Mary Magdalen was made possible because Fr. Williams had a knack for empowering the right people to step up and fulfill the roles the parish needed filling, Garska said.
“He didn’t want people just saying yes; he wanted people to offer their opinions,” Garska said. “He stressed that at parish council meetings. He said, ‘If you can’t argue with me and give me your true feelings on a subject we are discussing, I don’t want you here.’ He needed people who were seeing what he wasn’t seeing. He wanted people to take charge and help him.”
Grden recalled how Fr. Williams was a big advocate of social events after Mass so he could get to know the parishioners better, since he was often busy during the week at the tribunal.
He’d even organize Super Bowl watch parties at the parish, even though Fr. Williams didn’t much care for football and would only interrupt his pinochle game with parishioners in order to watch the commercials.
“He was so relatable with the people,” Grden said. “You couldn’t say he was pretentious or that he saw himself as better than anyone else. He did have some particularities; he preferred champagne to wine, but he was so relatable to the people. When he became pastor, it was his first parish festival — it turned out to be our last – but he volunteered to go into the dunk tank. It just showed he did whatever to serve the people."
Fr. William’s funeral was celebrated Nov. 4 at St. Justin Church.
He is predeceased by his parents, Jack and Estelle (Stathkis) Williams; and survived by his sisters, Nikki (Claude) Phillips, Jacqueline (Tim) Menard, and Vicki-Alysse (the late Robert) Mervyn, as well as many nieces and nephews.
“He will be so greatly missed,” Grden said. “He wanted more than anything to be there for the parish. He treasured his parish family. You don’t often see that in a pastor, not something you can always assume, but for him, his love for the parish was real.”
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