Capuchin-Franciscan Father Gilmary Tallman, 90, former president and highly-respected teacher at Thomas More Prep in Hays, Kansas, and pastor or associate pastor in 10 different parishes in Kansas, Colorado and Missouri, died Wednesday, August 14, 2024 at Via Christi Village in Hays, Kansas.
He had been a professed Capuchin for 69 years and a priest for 64.
The son of Kenneth and Elsie (Burkhart) Tallman, Raymond Tallman was born in Hays on January 8, 1934. He attended Jefferson West Grade School and St. Joseph’s Military Academy for a year, but then, with his twin brother Ernest, transferred to St. Francis Seminary in Victoria, which was then in its second year.
Both were in the high school seminary’s first graduating class, and after two years at St. Fidelis Seminary College in Herman, Pa., Ernest discerned a different vocation and Raymond entered the Capuchin novitiate in Annapolis, Md. Using a new religious name, Gilmary, he professed vows as a Capuchin on July 14, 1955.
Two years of philosophical studies back at Herman and three years of theological studies in Washington D.C. earned Gilmary a B.A. in philosophy and M.A. in religious education, and prepared him for ordination by Bishop Frederick Freking at St. Joseph Church, Hays, on May 28, 1960. After two more years of formation in Washington and Pittsburgh, he returned to the West, and has been here ever since.
Gilmary’s time as a priest divides mostly into three large parts: the first 20 years as a teacher, 26 years mainly in parish administration, and the last 13 in semi- or full retirement.
Preparing for a teaching career, Gilmary had taken graduate courses in history at Catholic University in Washington and Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. When he arrived in Kansas in 1962, an English instructor was needed, so he earned an M.A. in English at Ft. Hays State University.
He taught at St. Francis Seminary for seven years and then moved to the Military Academy in Hays to replace a young friar who had died suddenly. During his first year there, the Capuchins decided to combine their Victoria and Hays schools and form a Christian leadership college-prep called Thomas More Prep. He was heavily involved in the process of forming the new program in 1970, and taught there for another 12 years, while serving at various times as academic dean, vice president and president.
During those years, he was also a major player in another important decision, not another merger, but a division. In 1975, the Capuchin Province of Pennsylvania named him a “quasi-councilor for the west,” to help plan for the division of the province into two new provinces at the Indiana-Illinois border.
When the division took place in 1977, Gilmary was on the first provincial council of the new Province of St. Conrad.
He left academia in 1983 and took a year’s refresher course in theology and ministry at St. Louis University, while also serving on the province’s formation staff, before beginning parish ministry.
His many years in parish administration were at St. Fidelis in Victoria, and its Kansas mission churches: St. Ann’s in Walker, St. Boniface in Vincent, and Holy Cross in Pfeifer; St. Elizabeth’s and its mission St. Patrick’s in Denver; Immaculate Conception in Arnold, Mo.; St. Joseph’s in Hays, Notre Dame in Lakewood, Co.; and St. John the Evangelist in Lawrence, Ks. He was pastor for eight years, sacramental pastor for eight, and associate pastor for 12.
In between parish assignments, he also served 2001-2002 on the first staff of the confessional ministry at The Catholic Center in Colorado Springs’ Citadel Mall.
Besides his many Capuchin brothers, Gilmary is survived by his twin brother Ernie and sisters Marilyn Matthias and Susie Berger, and many nephews and nieces, and grand nephews and nieces.
Mass of Christian Burial will be at 1:00 pm on Monday, August 19, 2024 at the Basilica of St. Fidelis in Victoria. Burial will follow in St. Joseph Cemetery, Hays. Visitation will be from 6:00 pm until 8:00 on Sunday and from 12:00 pm until service time on Monday, all at the Basilica. A prayer service will be at 7:00 pm on Sunday at the Basilica. Memorials are suggested to the Capuchin Province of Mid-America, Inc. Services are in the care of Hays Memorial Chapel Funeral Home and condolences and memories of Fr. Gilmary may be left for his Capuchin brothers and his family at www.haysmemorial.com