RIP: 24/03/2022 - Birmingham, Alabama
Fr. Chad (Charles Albert) Puthoff was born on 26 August 1943 in Cincinnati, Ohia. Already in a very early stage of his life, he sensed a call to priestly ministry. He learned about the Society of the Divine Saviour and enrolled in Jordan Seminary in Menominee, Michigan. With the scope to become a Salvatorian, he entered the Society´s novitiate in Colfax, Iowa, where he made after the canonically prescribed year his first profession of vows on 8 September 1964. Straight after this, he completed his college studies and earned a Bachelor´s Degree in History and Philosophy. After two apostolic years of teaching, he completed his studies for the priesthood at Divine Saviour Seminary in Lanham, Maryland, and Washington Theological Coalition in DC. He was ordained a priest at St. Mary´s Church in Landover Hills, Maryland, on 3 September 1971. After a few years of teaching in Mishawaka and Racine, Wisconsin, Fr. Chad´s interest for parish ministry increased significantly. From then on, he served as assistant parish priest and pastor in different parishes in the USA. In the meanwhile, he got more and more interested in learning the Spanish language and about Hispanic cultures. He went even, during a sabbatical year to Caracas, Venezuela, to improve his knowledge of the language. This allowed him to serve many Spanish-speaking communities. In 2018, Fr. Chad retired from full-time ministry, and he moved to Birmingham and then Hoover, Alabama, where he helped out in local parish Masses during his retirement years. In mid- March 2022, he was admitted to the hospital for shortness of breath and was placed on a ventilator. Over the course of the next week his health deteriorated, and he died in the hospital in the morning hours of 24 March at the age of 78. He had been a Salvatorian for 57 years.
