BY RITA McINERNEY

Staff Writer

ATLANTA--Father Alfred W. Wendel, next pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary Church, was born in Seattle, Wash., in 1949 but grew up in Atlanta.

The adopted son of a career Army officer, Maj. Al Wendel and his wife, Vera, the Wendels came to Georgia in 1955 when Wendel became headquarters commandant at Fort McPherson. They lived in southwest Atlanta and belonged to St. Anthony's Parish where Alfred also attended Catholic school.

Later the family built a home in Stone Mountain and were founding members of Corpus Christi Church. Father Wendel attended the University of Georgia but dropped out to enter the Army.

While serving in Germany, the young man began thinking of the priesthood as a vocation. After his military service he graduated from Georgia State University.

He made the decision to become a priest and was accepted for seminary by the Diocese of Cheyenne. After his ordination June 9, 1978, at St. Mary's Cathedral in Cheyenne he celebrated his first Mass at Corpus Christi in Stone Mountain.

He became pastor of the consolidated parish of Our Lady of Sorrows and Sts. Cyril and Methodius in Rock Springs, Wyo., in 1990, after serving in numerous assignments including that of superintendent of Seton High School in Cheyenne.

The decision to leave Wyoming was a hard one, he said, because he has "received a tremendous amount of blessings" during his ministry there. With the approval of Bishop Joseph Hart, he applied to Archbishop John F. Donoghue and was granted the faculties of this archdiocese. Both his mother and father are deceased.