Father Clement Pangratz

Father Clement H. Pangratz, O.S.B., Lived to Age 98

Jubilarian of Vows (75 years) and Ordination (70 years)

   Father Clement Pangratz celebrated his 75^th Anniversary as a member of Saint Martin’s Abbey in Lacey, Washington, on July 11, 2016, and his 70^th Anniversary of Ordination as a Catholic priest on May 31, 2017.  His given name was Herman when he was born May 11, 1919 in Spokane, Washington.   He grew up in Port Angeles Washington, where he later served as a parish priest, 1971-1981.  Parish responsibilities in those days included Sequim, Forks, Clallam Bay, and Neah Bay, and in fact the whole of Clallam County.  Earlier in his ministry, he had served in the Kelso missions of southeast Washington and Assumption Parish in Seattle, before working mostly at Saint Martin’s Abbey and College in the 1950s and early 1960s.  He also served at McChord A.F.B. and then Holy Rosary Parish in Tacoma.  His last parochial work had been at Sacred Heart, Lacey. Three times he went to serve missions in Alaska.

   During the years in Clallam County, he was active in Toastmasters and in the Knights of Columbus.  Throughout his life he loved the rivers and the mountains, and the outdoors in general.  He enjoyed wild life, plants, janitorial cleaning, and gardening, and preferred contemporary spiritual authors for his personal reading, exceptions being Sacred Scripture and the Rule of Saint Benedict.He was avidin his commitment to music, singing, and praying the Divine Office of the Church.

   He was educated in Port Angeles through graduation from high school in 1938, and received higher education at Saint Martin’s College, Mount Angel School of Theology in Oregon, and earned a degree in sacred music from the Gregorian Institute of America in Chicago in 1949.  He served many years as an organist for Saint Martin’s Abbey as well as choir master, and infirmarian. He taught music and piano in Saint Martin’s High School and College, and served in chaplaincies for Saint Placid Priory, the Veterans Administration facility at American Lake, St. Joseph Hospital in Aberdeen, and in his most recent parochial years as priest for Assisted Living residents of Panorama City in Lacey.  He served in Abbey administration as Director of Members in Simple Profession in the 1950s, Associate for Members in Formation in the 1960s, and in more recent years asSub Prior of the Abbey until issues of health caused his retirement.

   His parents, Karl Pangratz (1885-1934) and Marie Hoffman Pangratz ((1889-1987), were born in what is today the Czech Republic.   Father Clement spoke Czech as his first language at home when he was young, and he learned sign language to communicate with his younger sister Anna, who became deaf and dumb through Scarlet Fever at the age of three.  She died in 1998. His older brother, John, died in a drowning accident at Sol Duc Falls in the Olympic National Park in 1932 where he had been fishing.  The entire family otherwise enjoyed hiking in the Olympic National Park, and several family members worked together at the saw mill in Port Angeles. 

   His brother Charles also preceded him in death, and he is survived by his niece, Michelle Gagnon and nephew Carl Pangratz of Port Angeles, his niece Mary Treider of Sequim and Members of the Benedictine Community of Saint Martin’s Abbey, Lacey.  Father Clement died at Mother Joseph Care Center in Olympia on Thursday, July 13, 2017.

   Funeral services are scheduled as follows:  Vigil Service with reception of the body will be in the Saint Martin’s Abbey Church at 7:30 P.M., Wednesday, July 26.  Eucharistic liturgy will be in the Abbey Church at 1:30 P.M. on Thursday, July 27, followed by the blessing of the grave at the Abbey Cemetery.  A reception will follow beginning at 3:30 P.M. in the Worthington Center of the Hal and Inga Marcus Pavilion.