Tighe, Rev Dermot Francis
REV. DERMOT FRANCIS TIGHE
March 17, 2020
Personal Info
- Date of Birth: 4 August 1930
- Place of Birth in Ireland: Strokestown
- County: Roscommon
- Education: Summerhill College, Sligo and St Patrick’s College, Carlow
- Date of Ordination: 6 June 1954
- Place of Ordination: Cathedral of the Assumption, Carlow, Ireland
- Ordained by: Most Rev Thomas Keogh, Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin
Diocesan Assignments
- Assistant – St Joseph, Liebenthal – 1954 to 1957
- Assistant – Sacred Heart Cathedral, Dodge City – 1957 to 1959
- Chancery – Dodge City Diocesan Director of Religious Vocations – 1960
- Pastor – St Lawrence, Jetmore and St Anthony, Hanston – 1959 to 1961
- Pastor – St Francis Xavier, Seward – 1961 to 1965
- Chaplain – Central Kansas Medical Center – 1965 to 1967
- Pastor – St Andrew, Wright – 1977 to 1984
- Chancery – Dodge City Tribunal Office Officialis and Adjutant Judicial Vicar – 1979
- Pastor – St Stanislaus, Ingalls – 1985 to 1991
- Pastor – St Patrick, Great Bend – 1991 to 1998
Father was the youngest of ten children and was known for his intelligence and athleticism. At age 11 he won an academic scholarship to attend the diocesan high school and he was very involved in athletics during his school years especially in hurling.
Father Tighe realized his vocation at the age of 24 and attributes his recruitment to Kansas by Monsignor John Cody. Msgr Cody, born in Kilkenny but was then a part of the Dodge City Diocese, had great success in recruiting seminarians to Kansas during his trips back home.
At the request of Bishop Marion Forst, Father Tighe served as an Army chaplain which lasted eight and a half years and included a tour of duty during the Vietnam War (1968-1969). It was his ministry to serve on the front line with the infantrymen and give last rites to dying soldiers in the field. Upon his honorable discharge, the Army awarded him the Meritorious Service Medal. In addition to his Vietnam tour, he ministered to troops stationed at Fort Hamilton in New York; Fort McClellan in Alabama; Fort Richardson in Alaska and Ft Eustis in Virginia.
He extended his service to the United States by joining the National Guard in Washington, D.C., Dodge City and Hutchinson. He retired from the Army as a colonel on 4 August 1990.
Throughout his life, Father Tighe advocated for the down-trodden and for various causes of the poor and the unborn. So much was his devotion to the unborn, he donated his home in Great Bend to Birthright after he moved into the Catholic Care Center in Bel Aire, Kansas.
