January 9, 2019 // Diocese

Mass of Christian Burial planned for Father Laurence Tippmann

Todays Catholic

FORT WAYNE — Father Laurence E. Tippmann, former pastor of St. John the Evangelist, St. Joseph and assistant at other parishes of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, as well as a judge of the marriage tribunal, died Jan. 3.

A Mass of Christian Burial for Father Tippmann is planned for 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 12, at St. Charles Borromeo Parish, Fort Wayne, 4916 Trier Rd., with celebrant Father Jacob Runyon. Visitation will take place Friday, Jan. 11 from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. at St. Charles, with a vigil service at 6 p.m.; and also prior to the Mass, from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Burial will be in Catholic Cemetery, Fort Wayne.

Father Laurence Tippmann

Father Tippmann retired from priestly ministry on July 1, 2001, and had since been a resident of St. Anne Home, Fort Wayne. He was born Aug. 22, 1933, in Gary to Laurence E. and Mary L. (Cross) Tippmann and attended St. Jude School and Central Catholic High School in Fort Wayne, followed by college at St. Gregory and seminary at Mount St. Mary’s, both in Cincinnati, Ohio.

His ordination to the priesthood took place May 31, 1969, at a Mass of ordination celebrated by Bishop Leo A. Pursley at St. Jude Parish, Fort Wayne.

He was first appointed assistant, then administrator, of St. Michael Parish, Plymouth; in 1972, he was appointed assistant at St. Matthew Cathedral Parish, South Bend. On July 1, 1974, he was appointed assistant at Queen of Angels Parish, Fort Wayne.

He began serving as chaplain of the St. Vincent de Paul Society, in addition to his duties as assistant, in 1978. The same year, he was appointed an advocate for the Marriage Tribunal. The following year, he became a judge of the Tribunal. 

Father Tippmann and Father Jim Wolf were five years ahead of Msgr. William Schooler when the three were in the seminary in Cincinnati, Msgr. Schooler remembered.

“I always admired them, especially because they were sons of St. Jude, where I served as a deacon in 1973 and again as pastor from 1988-2001.”

The three were friends.

“Father Larry and Father Wolf were part of our priests’ skiing group for many years. While most of us would travel by plane, Father Larry always came with Father Wolf in whatever bus he had been rehabilitating at the time.

“I always enjoyed his sense of humor,” he shared: “After a particularly spectacular fall on the slopes, he argued that a “fist from hell” had grabbed him.”

On July 7, 1980, Father Tippmann was appointed assistant at St. Charles. A year later he assumed the pastorship of St. John the Evangelist Parish, Goshen, and served there until 1987, when he was appointed pastor of St. Joseph Parish, Fort Wayne.