Hank Mattimore
Member in the Spotlight
Interview by Pat Tyler
It may come as a surprise to some that Hank Mattimore spent six years as a Missionary priest teaching English conversation in Japanese high schools.
This challenging assignment was followed by three years as the ‘honky priest’ in a black, depressed area of St. Petersburg, Florida.
Unlike the typical parish priest portrayed by Bing Crosby in the old Bells of St. Mary’s movie, Hank, an activist, founded two group homes for troubled boys and a day care center for disadvantaged children. Following Martin Luther King’s assassination, he marched for justice and then founded Camp Unitas, an inter-racial summer camp for kids. Although he’d spent his life in service to the community, opting to work with the poor, he often felt alone. He wanted a wife and children. So, long story short, at age thirty-six, Hank “doffed his Roman collar and started a new life.”
Within months he fell in love for the first time and married. “I had a lot to learn about love and women and relationships,” Hank says, “all the things I’d never been taught in the seminary or the priesthood.” He’d suddenly left boyhood for manhood. Other parts of his life remained fairly unchanged, however.
Leaving the priesthood with a Master’s Degree in Education allowed him to continue the kind of work he’d been doing as a priest. He served as Director of Services for frail elderly and as Senior Director of Services for a countrywide Alzheimer’s agency. He worked with developmentally disabled adults and served people living with AIDS. He became a Big Brother and a workshop leader for hospice patients writing spiritual wills. In a nutshell, Hank believes he “continued to be a priest, but without a collar.”
After his wife died, Hank read about Children’s Village, an intergenerational village in Santa Rosa. He jumped at the chance to volunteer. Let me paraphrase his grown children and many friends who later advised against his living on site. “We know you love kids, but do you really want to live with them?” He did, insisting they’d either “keep him young or send him to an early grave.” Four years later, serving as surrogate grandpa to the 24 abused and neglected children in his village, Hank has definitely remained young and vital. He says, “Living with these kids has enlarged my heart and stretched me in more ways than I thought possible. My life has changed dramatically.”
Today you might find Hank writing one of his books on his extraordinary life experiences, downloading rap, R & B, or Justin Timberlake. Tomorrow you might hear him giving ‘the talk’ to a thirteen-year-old boy, or sharing a snack with a kid who’s dropped by Hank’s on site apartment just to hang out.
“Because of the kids, here in this unlikely place, almost fifty years after my ordination, I am finally learning what it is to be a priest. These kids have taught me.”
And I, for one, hope the kids will continue teaching and learning from Hank as he continues teaching and learning from them, sharing laughter, tears, and a lot of love, as each becomes a gift to the other.
