Obit of Rev. Robert T. Schlitt (s430) - Grady County, Oklahoma Submitted by: Sandi Carter 27 May 2002 ==================================================================== USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or for presentation by other persons or organizations. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for purposes other than stated above must obtain the written consent of the file contributor. ====================================================================== The Chickasha Express-Star 12 March 2002 Rev. Robert T. Schlitt Reverend Robert T. Schlitt, longtime pastor of St. Francis Xavier Church, Stillwater, and longtime chaplain to Catholic high school and university students, died Sunday, March 10, 2002, at his rectory in Stillwater, Okla. A vigil for the deceased will be conducted at St. Francis Xavier Church, Stillwater, at 7:00 p.m. Wednesday, March 13. The Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated by Most Rev. Edward J. Slattery, bishop of Tulsa, at 11:00 a.m.. Thursday, March 14, in the same church. Interment will be at Memory Lane Cemetery, Anadarko, Oklahoma, at 3:00 p.m. Thursday. A memorial Mass is planned in Tulsa at a day and hour to be announced. Father Schlitt was born February 6, 1925, in Anadarko, the son of Andrew W. and Regina Holland Schlitt, of Verden, Oklahoma. He received his early education at St. Joseph's Academy, Chickasha. He attended the University of Oklahoma, and in 1949 he entered the seminary at San Antonio, Texas. He was ordained to the priesthood by Most Rev. Eugene J. McGuinness, bishop of Oklahoma City and Tulsa, on March 17, 1956, in Oklahoma City. His first, temporary, assignment was to the parish in which he would later serve as pastor, St. Francis Xavier in Stillwater. In June 1956 he was assigned as associate pastor at St. Francis Xavier in Tulsa, where he served for many years, at the same time performing pastoral duties to the Spanish-speaking congregation of the nearby Our Lady of Guadeloupe church. From 1960 to 1964 he was chaplain at the newly opened Bishop Kelley High School in Tulsa. After one year as pastor of St. Helen's parish, Frederick, he returned to serve as chaplain of Catholic students at the University of Tulsa, resuming as well his care of parishioners at Our Lady of Guadeloupe. In 1973 he was named pastor of St. John's University parish in Stillwater, a post he held for fourteen years. Always zealous in encouraging young men to consider the priesthood, he caused Oklahoma State University to become a major source of Catholic priestly vocations. Many of the men who were eventually ordained came to the school as Protestants, and they became Catholic through his example and guidance. From 1987 to 1992 he was pastor of St. Francis Xavier in Tulsa, while continuing his campus ministry at the University of Tulsa. In 1992 he returned yet again to Stillwater, this time as pastor of St. Francis Xavier parish, where he had begun his priestly ministry in 1956. Known universally as "Father Bob," he was a remarkably approachable and gregarious man, much in demand by young people as a confessor and as a presider at weddings. He is survived by two sisters-in-law, Billie H. Schlitt and Anna Lee Schlitt, both of Chickasha; two nieces, Margaret David (and her husband, Joe) of Chickasha, and Roberta Kirby (and her husband, Dick), of Whitney, Texas' and four great-nephews and two great-nieces. In lieu of flowers, friends are asked to contribute to the Infirm Priests Fund of the Diocese of Tulsa.