Diocesan News
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Canon George Chassey takes a trip down memory lane
(Reprinted with thanks from Rays of Still
Hopes)
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Canon Chassey's P51 Mustang Fighter (click to enlarge) |
During World War II, the Rev. George Chassey was a crew chief on a P51 Mustang Fighter plane. These planes were new to the war, and Chassey’s outfit was the first to fly them in combat. The crew chief had a great responsibility in making the decision regarding the mechanical fitness of the plane for each flight.
In July 2006 Canon Chassey and his wife Mary were in Boise, Idaho, visiting their granddaughter and her husband, who is a meteorologist in the Air Force. He and Chassey began searching the Internet and found the current owner of Chassey’s plane, who had been trying for several years to find out who this plane’s crew chief was during the war.
Chassey contacted the owner who was so excited to finally find him that he made arrangements for Chassey to come to Minnesota for a visit. On August 22, the Chasseys flew to Minneapolis, where Canon Chassey saw his plane for the first time since the war. The owner had already had Chassey’s name painted on it as its WWII crew chief. Not only did Chassey find his plane, but he was able to go up in it. “There could have been no greater thrill for him,” said Mary. To top it off, Chassey got to fly it himself.
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Chassey visits his plane (click to enlarge) |
While in Minneapolis, Chassey also visited a pilot who was in
his squadron. Having not seen each other for more than 60 years,
they had a great reunion.
After service in World War II, Chassey went to seminary, became an
Episcopal priest, and eventually canon for administration in the Diocese of
Upper South Carolina. Canon Chassey retired in 1989. He and his wife Mary live in
West Columbia.
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On September 21 Bishop Henderson presided over the institution of the Rev. Paul William Greeley as the 14th rector of the Church of the Advent, Spartanburg. Others included in the service were the Rt. Rev. Charles F. Duvall and the Rev. Dr. Clay H. Turner, the fourteenth and sixteenth rectors of the church. The Rev. Dr. Jeffrey A. Batkin, interim rector at Advent, was the preacher.
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| The Rev. Bill Greeley and parishioner Sonia McDuffie admire the service bulletin |
Fr. Greeley comes to Upper South Carolina from the Diocese of Arizona, where he was serving as canon and interim dean at Trinity Cathedral in Phoenix. In reality, he is coming home. He was born in Spartanburg, grew up in Rock Hill, is a 1975 graduate of Wofford College, and went to seminary from the Church of Our Saviour in Rock Hill under Bishop George Alexander. His wife, Sharon, is a native of Alabama. His brother, Leland, an attorney, is senior warden at Our Saviour.
Following graduation from Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois, Greeley was a deacon/assistant at Saint Thaddeus in Aiken and served as vicar at Saint Luke’s in Newberry under Bishop William Beckham. In 1982, he was called to Birmingham, Alabama, as associate rector at Saint Luke’s in Mountain Brook. He left that position in 1987 and was founder and director of Holy Innocents Ministry, a home for abused and neglected children, in Chelsea, Alabama.
In 1995, desiring to get back into parish ministry, he answered a
call from Bishop Robert Shahan, who had been his seminary
instructor, and who served as rector in Aiken, to journey west to
Arizona to become rector at Saint Mark’s in Mesa. After Bishop
Shahan suffered a heart attack, Greeley joined the diocesan staff as
archdeacon from 1998 to 2005. Upon the election of the new bishop of
Arizona, Kirk Smith, Greeley assumed new duties as canon in the diocese
and interim dean of Trinity Cathedral. He began his ministry at
Advent in June. He and Sharon have two grown children, Charis Anne
and Michael Francis.