Milton McCormick "Mac" Gatch was a priest at the Chapel of St. James the Fisherman in Wellfleet, a professor, and a librarian, passed away at the age of 90 due to pancreatic cancer, according to a report by The Provincetown Independent.
Early Years
Mac was born to Mary Eliza Curry and Milton McCormick Gatch in Cincinnati.
He grew up in Milford on a family farm that has been in his family since the 1700s.
His ancestor, Philip Gatch, who was a Methodist minister and circuit rider, moved his family from Maryland to Ohio Territory, which was slavery-free at the time, as Mac chronicled in a family history book called "Till the Break of Day."
Mac attended Walnut Hills High School in Cincinnati and graduated from Haverford College.
He then returned to Cincinnati to attend law school but later realized that law was not his passion.
With this, he joined the Army first and then pursued his interest in theology.
He studied at Boston's Episcopal Theological Seminary.
Afterward, he earned a Ph.D. from Yale University in 1963.
While at St. Thomas Church in Terrace Park, Mac met Ione Georganna White, with whom he fell in love and married.
They remained married for 61 years and raised three children together.
They both shared a love for food, art, education, literature, music, progressive politics, and travel, and their home was always a gathering place for friends wherever they lived.
Academic Pursuits
Mac was a well-respected academic, teacher, and scholar.
He spent over ten years serving as dean and provost at Union Theological Seminary in New York City before becoming the head librarian of the Burke Library, which is one of the biggest theological libraries in North America.
Mac was particularly interested in the history of the Anglo-Saxon church.
Throughout his career, Mac taught Latin at Wooster School in Danbury, Connecticut, and chaired the humanities department at Shimer College in Mount Carroll, Illinois.
He also taught English at Northern Illinois University and the University of Missouri and was a guest professor at Humboldt Universität in Berlin.
He also taught at King's College, Cambridge.
Mac was also invited to join literary societies like the Grolier Club, which is the oldest society for bibliophiles in America.
He was also asked to be a member of the Century Association, which was famously called the most unspeakably respectable club in New York by Mark Twain, a Century member.
Faith
Mac and his friend Jack Smith were co-priests-in-charge at St. James the Fisherman for more than 30 years.
Mac started delivering sermons there in 1976.
The Reverend Tracey Lind, who currently serves as the priest-in-charge at St. James, described Mac's faith as deep, thoughtful, and inquisitive, with an emphasis on the idea of God beyond gender.
He stated that for years, Mac was vocal about his lack of belief in an afterlife, instead believing that the work being done on Earth is what's most important.
Mac meticulously planned his funeral, including the music, the order of events, and even selecting his dear friend, writer James Carroll, to give the eulogy.
He made these preparations long before his pancreatic cancer diagnosis, which came only three weeks before his death.
Mac's ashes will be buried in the Chapel of St. James the Fisherman during a memorial service scheduled for the summer.
Contributions in his memory can be sent to the Mac Gatch Memorial Fund at the Chapel of St. James the Fisherman, P.O. Box 1334, Wellfleet 02667.
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