A Whole Lotta Family - Person Sheet
A Whole Lotta Family - Person Sheet
NameRev Fr Thomas Patrick Gier 
Birth16 Mar 1925, Kansas City, Jackson Co, Missouri
Death5 Oct 2007, Kansas City, Jackson Co, Missouri Age: 82
BurialUnknown324
OccupationPriest
FlagsClergy
FatherJoseph Flavian “Joe” Gier (1887-1951)
MotherLouise Cecilia “Ganny” Cauley (1891-1962)
Notes for Rev Fr Thomas Patrick Gier
Tribute: The Rev. Thomas Gier loved missionary workHide Details
Kansas City Star, The (MO) - December 8, 2007
• Author/Byline: DEANN SMITH, The Kansas City StarEdition: 1Section: NEWSPage: B7
Who: The Rev. Thomas Patrick Gier , 82, a missionary, of Kansas City.
When and how he died: Oct. 5, of prostate cancer.
His early years: Tom Gier was born March 16, 1925, a few minutes before his twin brother, John. He was the sixth of seven children born to the family, said his sister Marianne Carr. Carr said she was two years older but smaller, so strangers often mistook them for triplets. Their father loved to fish, so he would load up the Buick and drive them to Colorado or Minnesota. "Our vacations were never to cities. We always went to someplace where my dad could fish," she said. "We had a very outdoor life."
Priesthood: Gier graduated from Rockhurst College and then received a master's degree in social work from Catholic University of America in Washington. He served stateside in the Navy in World War II. When he was 27 years old, he entered a seminary in New York, Carr said. Her brother loved it and knew he had found his calling, she said.
Missionary work: He served stints in Bolivia and Brazil before he headed to the Philippines, where he became a pioneer Catholic priest on an island with no running water or electricity. He helped build a school and church. Carr recalled a visit with her brother in 1976: "It was a tropical paradise, but it was very hard to live there. After four days, my sister and I were happy to get back on the mainland. It was hard living, very rustic, but he loved it. He had always loved to camp out."
After 18 years in the Philippines, when most would retire, Gier headed for Papua New Guinea, where he helped bring peace among warring tribes, including some cannibals, said friend John Purk. "He was very meek and humble," Purk said. "He was a born missionary."
Fellow priest and Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity member Michael Jordan, who served with Gier in the Philippines, said he had more than 70 "spiritual sons" whom he helped bring to the priesthood, including a number of Filipinos.
"He had just a wonderful spirit. He could find the humor in every situation," Jordan said.
Because of poor health, Gier was forced to return to Kansas City in 2004. "He really didn't like that. He wanted to stay in the mission and die with his boots on," said his sister, Marianne Carr.
Survivors include: Two sisters.
Last word: "He kept saying the only thing you need to be a good missionary is three things: kindness, kindness and more kindness," his sister said. "He was living his dream."
Kansas City Star, The (MO) - December 8, 2007
• Author/Byline: DEANN SMITH, The Kansas City StarEdition: 1Section: NEWSPage: B7
Who: The Rev. Thomas Patrick Gier , 82, a missionary, of Kansas City.
When and how he died: Oct. 5, of prostate cancer.
His early years: Tom Gier was born March 16, 1925, a few minutes before his twin brother, John. He was the sixth of seven children born to the family, said his sister Marianne Carr. Carr said she was two years older but smaller, so strangers often mistook them for triplets. Their father loved to fish, so he would load up the Buick and drive them to Colorado or Minnesota. "Our vacations were never to cities. We always went to someplace where my dad could fish," she said. "We had a very outdoor life."
Priesthood: Gier graduated from Rockhurst College and then received a master's degree in social work from Catholic University of America in Washington. He served stateside in the Navy in World War II. When he was 27 years old, he entered a seminary in New York, Carr said. Her brother loved it and knew he had found his calling, she said.
Missionary work: He served stints in Bolivia and Brazil before he headed to the Philippines, where he became a pioneer Catholic priest on an island with no running water or electricity. He helped build a school and church. Carr recalled a visit with her brother in 1976: "It was a tropical paradise, but it was very hard to live there. After four days, my sister and I were happy to get back on the mainland. It was hard living, very rustic, but he loved it. He had always loved to camp out."
After 18 years in the Philippines, when most would retire, Gier headed for Papua New Guinea, where he helped bring peace among warring tribes, including some cannibals, said friend John Purk. "He was very meek and humble," Purk said. "He was a born missionary."
Fellow priest and Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity member Michael Jordan, who served with Gier in the Philippines, said he had more than 70 "spiritual sons" whom he helped bring to the priesthood, including a number of Filipinos.
"He had just a wonderful spirit. He could find the humor in every situation," Jordan said.
Because of poor health, Gier was forced to return to Kansas City in 2004. "He really didn't like that. He wanted to stay in the mission and die with his boots on," said his sister, Marianne Carr.
Survivors include: Two sisters.
Last word: "He kept saying the only thing you need to be a good missionary is three things: kindness, kindness and more kindness," his sister said. "He was living his dream."