A funeral Mass for Capuchin Franciscan Father Gilmary Tallman was celebrated Aug. 19 at the Basilica of St. Fidelis in Victoria, Kansas. Father Gilmary, a former president and teacher at Thomas More Prep in Hays, Kansas, and pastor or associate pastor at 10 parishes in Kansas, Colorado and Missouri, died Aug. 14 at Via Christi Village in Hays. He was 90 and 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 Jan. 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, Pennsylvania, Raymond entered the Capuchin novitiate in Annapolis, Maryland. Using a new religious name, Gilmary, he professed vows as a Capuchin on July 14, 1955.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and master’s in religious education. He was ordained by Bishop Frederick Freking at St. Joseph Church in Hays on June 5, 1960.
Father Gilmary’s ministry included 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, Father Gilmary had taken graduate courses in history at The Catholic University in Washington and Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. When he returned to Kansas in 1962, an English instructor was needed, so he earned a master’s 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. 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.
In 1975, the Capuchin Province of Pennsylvania named him 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, Father 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 Saint 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, Missouri; St. Joseph’s in Hays; Notre Dame in Lakewood, Colorado; and St. John the Evangelist in Lawrence, Kansas. He was pastor for eight years, sacramental pastor for eight and associate pastor for 12.
In between parish assignments, he also served from 2001-02 on the first staff of the confessional ministry at The Catholic Center in Colorado Springs’ Citadel Mall.
Besides his many Capuchin brothers, Father Gilmary is survived by his twin brother, Ernie, sisters Marilyn Matthias and Susie Berger, and many nephews, nieces and grand-nephews and nieces. Burial was in St. Joseph Cemetery in Hays.
