Father John Ollivier-1988. Father John Ollivier celebrated the 50th anniversary of his ordination in May 2000. Until he retired a few years ago, he was a priest of the Diocese of Toledo, Ohio. He spent 16 years as Chaplain at Bowling Green University. Judy's sister Sue took her baccalaureate degree there and that's how Judy got to know him. Fr. Ollivier sailed the Great Lakes and skied the mountains of Canada and that is how Judy became a sailor and an "aprés skier."

Father Ollivier is a sort of Renaissance man. He has written and published several volumes of poetry. He knew the whole of Greek mythology. He built the Catholic Newman Center at Bowling Green with his own hands, brick course by brick course. And he knew St. Thomas Aquinas by memory. He was doing computers years before I would go near them and he was a bridge player who knew, more or less, where all the cards were.

He spends most of the year in Florida. I painted him from a photo I took at the Lipaj cottage near Port Clinton on Lake Erie in 1986, although the painting wasn't done until 1988.

FATHER OLLIVIER DIED FEBRUARY 19TH, 2003.

GALLERY