Fr. Travis Served Diocese As a Priest for 64 Years

A Mass of Christian Burial for Father Herbert A. Travis, 91, was celebrated April 4 at St. Anselm’s Church, Bay Ridge. He died April 1 at St. Anselm’s rectory after a long illness.

Father Travis

Born in Torrington, CT, he attended Cathedral College, Brooklyn, and Immaculate Conception Seminary, Huntington. He was ordained May 30, 1942 at St. James Pro-Cathedral by Bishop Thomas E. Molloy.
He served as an assistant at St. Virgilius, Broad Channel, 1942-43; St. Patrick, Bay Ridge, 1943-60; St. Martin of Tours, Bushwick, 1960-68; St. Boniface, Downtown Brooklyn, 1968-70; SS. Simon and Jude, Gravesend, 1970-73; St. Kevin, Flushing, 1973-75; St. Anselm, Bay Ridge, 1975-90.

He retired in 1990 and remained living at St. Anselm’s rectory.

Retired Bishop Thomas V. Daily was the main celebrant of the funeral Mass. Special concelebrants included Msgrs. Michael J. Phillips and Robert J. Romano, and Fathers Joseph X. Wu and John F. Cullinane. Father Michael Gelfant preached the homily.
Father Gelfant, a parochial vicar at St. Anselm’s, was Father Travis’s caretaker through his final illness.

Bridging the Generations

Their first meeting two years ago was memorable. When newly ordained Father Gelfant mistakenly sat in the senior priest’s chair at the rectory dining table, Father Travis gave him a sharp rap on the leg with his cane and told him to move. But Father Gelfant took an interest in the elder priest. Eleven months ago, he noticed Father Travis wasn’t eating and took him to the doctor who diagnosed esophageal cancer. Father Travis wanted nothing to do with doctors and refused to go to the hospital. Father Gelfant promised to do everything he could so Father Travis could stay home in the rectory.
It was while caring for Father Travis that he got to know the priest who soon would have celebrated 65 years in the priesthood.

“He loved his priest friends and was the last one left,” Father Gelfant said. “He had a huge devotion to Our Lady of Fatima.”

Having been assigned at different times to St. Anselm and St. Patrick’s, he spent nearly 50 years serving Bay Ridge.

“He was a great apologetic, a defender of the faith,” Father Gelfant added.

Father Gelfant also learned that Father Travis loved to play golf and was a speed skater in his youth. He was a shy man who up until the last few weeks was still doing intricate word puzzles with the aid of a large well-used dictionary.

“He never complained,” Father Gelfant said, although he says, “Herbie” scoffed at the idea of the “golden years” saying they are “all tarnished.”

“He trusted me completely,” said Father Gelfant, who slept in Father Travis’s room at the end because he had promised the older man he would not die alone. Msgr. Michael Phillips, pastor, Father Gelfant and a registered nurse were there when Father Travis requested Holy Viaticum and then “surrendered himself.”

Father Travis is survived by his sister, Evelyn Macey of Bay Ridge.

Burial was in St. John’s Cemetery, Middle Village.

Brooklyn Franciscan Brother Killed in Car Crash

Brother Neri Fulton, OSF, a member of the Brooklyn Franciscan Brothers for 53 years, was killed when his car ran off the road March 25 in Commack, L.I., where he had been visiting family. He was 72.

Brother Neri

It is believed to be the first time a member of the local community was killed in a car accident.
A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated at St. Joseph’s Church, Kings Park, L.I., where he resided at Padua House.

Born as Robert Fulton in Wilmington, Del., he attended St. Francis Prep, Brooklyn, and entered the Franciscan Brothers on July 20th, 1954. He received the Franciscan Habit and the religious name “Neri” on Jan. 30, 1955.

After completing his novitiate, in Wyandanch, L.I., he taught in several elementary schools including St. Brigid’s, Ridgewood; Our Lady of Angels, Bay Ridge; and Our Lady of Good Counsel, Bedford-Stuyvesant; as well as Notre Dame in New Hyde Park, L.I. From 1966 to 1967, he taught at Bishop Ford H.S., Park Slope.

Brother Neri was assigned to St. Anthony’s H.S., Smithtown, L.I., in 1967 and he assumed the duties of chairman of the Social Studies Department as well as being the Plant Supervisor. During the past 40 years, he has been involved in many different roles at the school. For a time he was chairman of the Physical Education Department as well as the school’s Activities Director.

He also coached freshmen and sophomore football.
Friends and colleagues remembered Brother Neri as gregarious, charming and not willing to retire, even as he became more frail with age.
“He was an old-time coach,” recalled Rich Reichert, St. Anthony’s varsity football coach and a former student of Brother Neri. “He would yell at you and then he would hug you.”

In 1998, Brother Neri was inducted into St. Anthony’s High School Hall of Fame.

In 2003, the Catholic High School Football League named its regular-season Division AAA trophy after Brother Neri.

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