The Rev. Michael J. Bader was a WW II veteran, serving as a Hospital Corpsman in the U.S. Navy, who came to the Priesthood later in life following a decades long career as an Accountant. He attended the Theological College of Washington DC and was ordained in May 1989 one month shy of his 63rd birthday. He was assigned as associate pastor of St. Jerome Roman Catholic Church in Denbigh, VA a parish of nearly 1,300 families at that time. He loved the Church and what he did and found in this second career the peace and
contentment he sought all his life. He was also serving as chairman of the Richmond Diocese Pastoral Council.

As a seminarian prior to his ordination, he served in Catholic parishes in Wytheville, Hopewell and Richmond, VA. Fr. Bader died suddenly April 5th, 1992, after suffering from a heart attack that struck while he was attending a gathering at a Charlottesville church. He was 65 years old.

The priest was special “in his way with people and his love of God,” “He was a sharing person, He will be missed.” said the Rev. Jim Ditty, associate pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, who eulogized Fr. Bader during his funeral mass.

Before he entered Theological College in Washington, D.C., Fr. Bader had been active in the church. He was so involved in his Danville parish he often unlocked the church doors in the morning.

A fourth degree Knights of Columbus, Rev. Bader was state deputy chaplain for the Knights of Columbus and for the past three years served as chaplain for Walter P. Pollard Council 5480 of Knights of Columbus in Newport News.

NEWPORT NEWS – Rev. Michael J. Bader, 65, associate pastor of St. Jerome’s Catholic Church, died Sunday, April 5.

Rev. Bader, who was ordained in May 1989, had been at St. Jerome’s since 1989. He was also serving as chairman of the Richmond Diocese Pastoral Council. He was previously employed by the Lorillard Tobacco Co. from 1970 to 1984, retiring as chief accountant of the Danville plant. From 1965 to 1970, he was employed as supervisor of the accounting department of Lorillard in New York City.

He also served with the Navy during World War II as a medic. A fourth degree Knights of
Columbus, Rev. Bader was state deputy chaplain for the Knights of Columbus and for the past three years served as chaplain for Walter P. Pollard Council 5480 of Knights of Columbus in Newport News.

A Peninsula resident for the past three years, he was a native of Wyandotte, Mich.

Survived by two sisters, Wanda Miller of Lincoln, Mich., and Maryland McCliment of Troy, Mich.; and three brothers, George Bader of Mt. Clemens, Mich., Arnold Bouslay of Trenton, Mich., and Wayne Bouslay of Strongville, Ohio.