Ordination portrait of Father Robert Siu
One of Hawaii’s first diocesan priests spent final years in Wyoming
Father Robert Kwong Chee Siu, one of the Hawaii’s first local-born diocesan priests, died Sept. 11 in Lander, Wyoming, where he was a retired parish priest in residence. He had celebrated his 60th anniversary of ordination in June. He was 90 when he died.
Father Siu was as a parish priest and a seminary teacher in Hawaii for 18 years before leaving the islands for studies on the Mainland. He remained on the Mainland, serving in parishes and as a hospital chaplain in a number of western states.
His obituary on the website of Hudson’s Funeral Home in Lander described the late priest as “a man of discipline, prayer, study, wisdom and great wit” who celebrated Mass “with devotion” every day, unless prevented by sickness.
“He was a patriot, a devotee of Notre Dame football, and a lover of horses, guns, hunting and the natural beauty of Wyoming,” the article said.
Robert Siu was born in Honolulu on July 29, 1924, one of seven children of Chin Tai Siu and Sin Cook Lee. He graduated from Saint Louis College (now Saint Louis School) in 1942. He joined the U.S. Navy during World War II, serving from 1944 to 1946.
Father Siu had wanted to be a priest ever since his baptism at age 14. After his discharge from the Navy, he enrolled at Catholic University in Washington, D.C., from 1946 until 1948, when he entered St. Mary Seminary in Roland Park, Maryland.
Bishop James J. Sweeney, the first bishop of the Diocese of Honolulu, ordained the 30-year-old Father Siu on June 12, 1954, in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace. He was the fifth Hawaii-born priest ordained by Bishop Sweeney, and the second of Chinese ancestry.
Father Siu served for a short time as an associate pastor at the Honolulu cathedral, at Immaculate Conception Parish in Holualoa from 1954 to 1955; and at Sacred Heart Parish, Waianae, from 1959 to 1964. He also was assistant chancellor for the diocese from 1962 to 1963.
Father Siu was pastor of the Big Island’s Malia Puka O Kalani Parish in Keaukaha from 1964 to 1972.
In addition to parish work, he spent four years on the faculty of St. Stephen Seminary in Kaneohe, from 1955 to 1959, where he taught Latin, English composition and religion.
Father Siu left Hawaii in 1972 to study at the Institute of Spirituality in Oakland, California. He also enrolled in clinical pastoral education at two Catholic hospitals before moving to Idaho to work in several parishes, and then to Wyoming in 1980.
In Wyoming, he was associate pastor of St. Mary’s Cathedral, Cheyenne, administrator of St. Anthony in Upton, and pastor of St. Leo in Lusk and St. Joseph in Lovell. He retired in 1992 and lived as a priest in residence at Holy Rosary Parish, Lander, until his death.
All this time he remained a priest of the Diocese of Honolulu.
A tribute to Father Siu on the New Liturgical Movement website, written by friend Kyle Washut, said that the retired priest had served as a “spiritual elder” offering spiritual direction at Wyoming Catholic College.
“The man was a veritable fountain of knowledge,” Washut wrote.
Washut described one of Father Siu’s final Masses, celebrated in his rectory. “Here was a good and faithful servant, offering his very self as an immolation with this Holy Eucharist,” he said. “While he was aware, he refused morphine, and when possible, even water in order to win souls for Christ.”
“After that Mass, when Father Siu told me to go forth and serve the Lord, I hoped I could communicate to others the beauty of holiness that I witnessed in that man,” Washut wrote.
Father Siu is survived by his brothers Arthur K.B. Siu and James K.M. Siu, and nieces and nephews.
Father Siu’s funeral Mass was scheduled for noon, Sept. 26, 2014, in the Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace in Honolulu. Burial was to be at Hawaiian Memorial Park.
