BY GRETCHEN KEISER

Staff Writer

ATLANTA--Father William Edward Calhoun may have been a quiet man in character, but his priesthood is well remembered.

At his death, those who gathered to pray and recall Father Calhoun were quick to speak of his impact on them and generous with warm memories of this priest who served the Atlanta Archdiocese for over 33 years.

Father Calhoun, born in Carrollton in 1932, died Jan. 4 at St. Joseph's Hospital in Atlanta more than two years after a serious automobile accident left him paralyzed to the neck. He was 64.

His extended family, including his mother, Henrietta Calhoun Clay, many parishioners and friends from parishes and Catholic schools where he served, and clergy of the archdiocese, recalled his life at an evening prayer service Jan. 6 and Mass of Christian Burial Jan. 7. Both were held at the Cathedral of Christ the King. He was buried at Arlington Memorial Park in Sandy Springs where bishops of the archdiocese and many priests are interred.

Father Edward Branch, who spoke at the evening service, said that Father Calhoun was "a quiet witness to the history of the Church in Georgia and, yes, the United States." The first African-American priest ordained for the Archdiocese of Atlanta, Father Calhoun was ordained by Archbishop Paul Hallinan May 25, 1963 after studying at St. Mary's Seminary in Baltimore. He was also the first black priest to be ordained from St. Mary's.

Father Branch, a 1974 St. Mary's graduate, said he noticed Father Calhoun's photograph when he arrived as a young black seminarian, although they did not meet until 1988.

When Father Branch, of the Louisville, Ky., Diocese, came to serve as Catholic campus minister at the Atlanta University Center in 1990, Father Calhoun sought him out and a pattern began of the two having monthly dinners together. The same campus ministry position had been held by Father Calhoun in 1975-76.

"We--he and I--certainly at two different ends of the political, theological, and what-have-you spectrum, but regularly in each other's company," Father Branch reminisced to laughter. "They were wonderful dinners, great dinners, and yes, the best part is, he always paid."

"Most of us became the beneficiaries of the strong character and spirituality this challenge, his age and stature demanded and ironically produced," Father Branch said.

His historic role was only one aspect of a varied priesthood that included teaching, military chaplaincy and pastorates. It culminated in his last two years of patient endurance.

"When voice failed, his eyes still communicated the patience and kindness of the gentleman we knew," Father Branch said. "And so in the end the priest who stood at the altar became the sacrifice. The Christian story became his story."

Father Calhoun was pastor of Holy Trinity Parish in Peachtree City when the accident occurred as he left a Fayetteville shopping center where he had bought a child's gift for the parish Christmas giving tree. Critically injured, he has been hospitalized and on a respirator since Dec. 7, 1994.

Judy Gannon, office manager at Holy Trinity, said Father Calhoun's suffering was a quiet witness to many parishioners and brought about more prayer in the parish. His tenure as pastor only lasted a few months, but his impact has been great, Gannon said. "He was a very, very devout Christian man. He really loved his faith and the people he was called to serve," she said. "Through his tragedy it just bonded the parish family to, I believe, even more prayer...He was such an example...He went in faith."

Henrietta Calhoun Clay said she always thought her son would become a Baptist minister because he served as a youth at the church in which he was raised in the Griffin Street-Sunset Avenue section of Atlanta. An honors graduate of Washington High School, he went to Morehouse College for three years before joining the Air Force. A Catholic chaplain was reportedly instrumental in his decision to become a Catholic while serving in Germany and when he came out of the Air Force he had already decided that he wanted to be a priest.

At St. Mary's Seminary he received his bachelor's degree in philosophy and his bachelor's degree and licentiate in sacred theology. He later received a master's degree in education from Catholic University in Washington, D.C.

Linda Jones Henderson was a high school student in 1966, who was taught religion by Father Calhoun in his first archdiocesan assignment as a faculty member at St. Joseph's High School. Interviewed before the funeral Mass, Henderson vividly recalled her teacher's skill and kind demeanor.

"He had us do a study on interdenominational respect. Each of us was assigned to study another faith and then to bring in a minister from that faith" to the classroom to explain its tenets, she said. "He was a really kind person. At the time I did not know his background (as an adult convert to Catholicism). That was probably the reason he was so kind about understanding and respecting different religions."

In an interview in The Georgia Bulletin in 1967, Father Calhoun said, "The young people I have taught in high school have taught me more about what it means to be human and loving--and an educator--than all my previous schooling."

After three years of teaching, he requested to serve as a military chaplain in the Air Force, which he did for seven years, before returning to the archdiocese in 1974. His pastoral assignments then included one year as assistant pastor at St. Thomas the Apostle in Smyrna, campus ministry at Atlanta University and one year as assistant pastor at St. Thomas More in Decatur.

In 1978 he received his first assignment as a pastor at St. Joseph's Church in Athens, where he served until May 1983. Father Calhoun then became the pastor of St. John Vianney Church in Lithia Springs from 1983 until 1987, the pastor of St. Mary's Church in Toccoa and the mission in Commerce from 1987 until 1994, and finally the pastor of Holy Trinity in Peachtree City in 1994. He was a member of the College of Consultors, who serve as priest advisers to the archbishop, from 1990 until 1994 and at the same time served as dean of priests in the northeast rural area of the archdiocese.

Over 50 priests of the archdiocese were concelebrants of the Mass of Christian Burial. Priest pallbearers included Father Bill Hoffman, a longtime friend and pastor of St. Michael's in Gainesville, Msgr. Peter Dora, pastor of St. Joseph's in Athens, Father Paul Flood, pastor of St. Mary's in Toccoa, Father Michael McWhorter and Father Frank McNamee, who served with him at Holy Trinity, and Father Larry Niese from Holy Cross in Atlanta.

Ben Gibson, a close friend since the 1950s, described Father Calhoun as "a very staunch Catholic."

"He was a convert, so he appreciated Catholicism," said Gibson, one of the readers at the evening prayer service and the Mass. "He loved the churches that were in the outlying areas. He wanted to be able to reach out to people...He wanted to be involved with the people."

Patricia Defenbaugh, religious educator at St. Mary's in Toccoa for the past 15 years, recalled Father Calhoun as a pastor who was "very empowering."

He was a good leader who had "confidence in the people on his staff," she said.

"As soon as he came, he acquired a trailer" which provided four classrooms for religious education, Defenbaugh said. "He gave us structure which helped us develop a strong religious education program...and supported it 100 percent."

A new church was constructed at St. Mary's while he was pastor and dedicated in 1991.

Father Calhoun was the first priest Angelene Willard came to know as she studied the Catholic faith at St. Mary's. She said in an interview that she was first attracted to the church out of intellectual curiosity. But as the class progressed with Father Calhoun as instructor, "It became a spiritual journey." She found the pastor to be "an outstanding priest in every respect. He was kind and gentle and, in addition to having a strong spirituality, he had a strong intellect."

Like other members of the Toccoa parish, she visited Father Calhoun following his accident, but did not find it easy to witness.

Archbishop John F. Donoghue, who was the principal celebrant of the Mass of Christian Burial, spoke in his homily of the difficulty faced by Father Calhoun's family and many friends in the last two years. He also offered a hopeful perspective.

"Although for a long time he was not able to move among us and he was not able to communicate freely...we have always known that he was praying for us," Archbishop Donoghue said. "Many people who grieved at his misfortune came to understand that perhaps in his suffering Father Calhoun was able to become a greater friend to us."

The archbishop noted that for most of his life the priest enjoyed good health and "the blessings of God" upon his work as a priest. "Although he was a most humble and self-effacing man, his was a spiritual strength that only a few can justly claim...He became one of North Georgia's most beloved pastors...who also took suffering when it was passed to him."

"We have to thank Father Calhoun, we have to admire him," Archbishop Donoghue said. "For by enduring he certainly achieved a more complete union with Christ than most of us will ever know in our lifetimes...We bless his going even as the angels and saints bless his coming."

At the evening prayer service, Knights and Ladies of St. Peter Claver provided hospitality and the Archbishop Lyke Memorial Choir sang with Janis Griffin as cantor and Jack Tilson as organist. At the Mass, Hamilton Smith was song leader, Ronald Lafond cantor and Timothy Wissler organist. The Rev. Dr. T. DeWitt Smith, Jr., pastor of West Hunter Street Baptist Church where the priest's mother is an active member, offered the prayers and sympathy of his church.

In addition to his mother, Father Calhoun is survived by four sisters, Barbara C. Blount of Macon, Freddie Calhoun, Rhudene C. Johnson and Annetta C. Mathews, all of Atlanta; a brother, Richard E. Calhoun of Detroit and a stepbrother, Augustus L. Clay of Lithonia. He is predeceased by his father, Fred Douglas Calhoun.