Priest served Guam, Hawaii parishes, active in charismatic movement
Capuchin Franciscan Father Eymard McKinnon, who served in Hawaii parishes in the 1990s, died on Dec. 17 in Ringwood, New Jersey. He was 89, a Franciscan for 67 years and a priest for 60 years.
His funeral was Dec. 20 at Sacred Heart Church in Yonkers, New York.
The late Bishop Joseph A. Ferrario in 1991 appointed Bishop Father McKinnon as pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Naalehu on the southern tip of the Big Island for two years.
Before that, the New York native had served in Guam for five years. He had also worked in New York, Maine and Arizona as a parish priest, a teacher and as a chaplain for the New York State Mental Health Hospital System.
Father McKinnon returned to Guam in 1993, coming back to Hawaii in 1997 to be a priest in residence and temporary associate pastor at St. Elizabeth Parish, Aiea, and to help out in other parishes.
Affectionately known as “Father Mac,” he was very active in the charismatic renewal movement.
Father McKinnon was born in the Bronx, N.Y., on June 15, 1925. His birth name was Ronald. The date of his investiture as a Capuchin Franciscan was Sept. 16, 1947. He professed his first vows on Sept. 17, 1948, and final vows on the same day in 1951. He was ordained on June 26, 1954.
Father McKinnon’s first assignment was a year as teacher and prefect at St. Mary Seminary, Garrison, N.Y. Successive assignments included vocation recruitment, pastoral associate, high school teacher and more than 10 years as a hospital chaplain in New York.
In 1974, he moved to Arizona to care for his elderly mother while serving as a parish priest in a number of churches. He returned to New York in 1984.
The Capuchin volunteered in 1988 for service in the Mariana Islands and Hawaii where he ministered in parishes for the next 16 years. He retired at St. Clare Friary, Yonkers, on Jan. 1, 2014, and was later transferred to Holy Name Friary, Ringwood, New Jersey.
He was survived by a nephew and several cousins.