A private funeral Mass for Father Martin Alphonso Stillmock, CSSR, was celebrated April 1 at St. Clement Redemptorist chapel in Liguori. Father Stillmock died March 29 at St. Clement Redemptorist Mission Community in Liguori. A longtime pastor and prolific author, Father Stillmock wrote numerous articles for more than 20 magazines, as well as “Teens Talk of Many Things,” a book that included many of his popular “Teenage Problems” columns published in Catholic newspapers in the 1960s and 1970s.

Father Stillmock was born on May 30, 1932, in Omaha, Nebraska, the youngest of 10 children. His parents were founding members of the Polish St. Stanislaus Parish in Omaha, and his surviving sibling, 96-year-old Sister Rose Ann Stillmock, a Sister of St. Francis, served for many years as principal of Immaculate Conception and St. Stanislaus parochial schools.

Father Stillmock professed temporary vows as a Redemptorist on Aug. 2, 1953, and perpetual vows on Sept. 2, 1956. He was ordained to the priesthood on June 24, 1958.

In his first assignment, Father Stillmock served as a professor of English and religion at St. Joseph Preparatory College in Edgerton, Wisconsin. He instilled a love of the written word in his students, and mentored many of them in parish ministry during the next three decades.

Father Stillmock was appointed to St. Joseph Parish in Wichita, Kansas, in 1972. After only one year, he was assigned as pastor and local superior of the Redemptorist community, a position he held until 1981. Father Stillmock was assigned as pastor and local superior of St. Alphonsus Parish in Davenport, Iowa, in 1981, where he served for six years. He returned to Omaha to serve as pastor and local superior of Holy Name Parish from 1987 until 1993, when he was assigned at St. Alphonsus Parish in Minneapolis. Father Stillmock remained there for 22 years, serving as local superior of the Redemptorist community 1999-2008.

Although he officially retired in 2009, he remained in residence in Minneapolis until 2015, when he was assigned to the Liguori Mission House in Liguori. Last year, that community combined with the former St. Clement Health Care Center community to form the new St. Clement Redemptorist Mission community in Liguori.

Burial was in the Redemptorist Cemetery in Liguori.