Father Daniel W. Gerres, a Wilmington native who served as a priest of the Diocese of Wilmington for nearly 60 years, died March 25. He was 83.
Father Gerres attended St. Ann School in Wilmington before going to St. Charles Minor Seminary in Catonsville, Md., St. Mary’s Seminary on Paca Street and St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore. He was ordained on May 21, 1966, at the Cathedral of St. Peter.
He told The Dialog in 2016 upon the 50th anniversary of his ordination that he remembered much about that day at the cathedral, but one detail stood out.
“I remember that the floor was cold at St. Peter’s Cathedral,” he said.
He served as associate pastor at St. Mary Magdalen and St. Matthew’s, both in Wilmington. He began his long tenure as a pastor at Resurrection Parish in Pike Creek in 1973 and was also pastor at St. John the Beloved, Immaculate Heart of Mary and St. Thomas the Apostle, all in Wilmington. He was administrator of Corpus Christi Parish, Elsmere, in 1986-87.
Father Gerres recalled moving into the converted barn that St. Ann’s used as its rectory. The pastor, Father Henry Miller, greeted him at the door.
“The first thing he said was, ‘You don’t have a guitar, do you?’” he said, laughing. “Those were the days when they had all the guitars and everything.”
His assignments in the diocese included president of the Priests’ Senate; chairman of the Clergy Personnel Committee, the Ecumenical Commission and the Continuing Education Committee; and member of The Dialog board, the Saint Mark’s High School board and the Catholic Diocese Foundation.
Father Gerres was dean of the Mill Creek Deanery, state chaplain of the National Guard and chaplain of Gander Hill Prison.
He retired from the National Guard in 2000 and from the active pastorate 10 years later. He lived in retirement at St. Elizabeth Parish in Wilmington and then Cokesbury Village in Hockessin, but he continued to say Mass at area churches for many years. One of those was St. Mary Magdalen, which held a special place in his heart.
“I go back there to say Mass sometimes, and people are sitting in the same seats,” he said.
Saying Mass was especially meaningful to Father Gerres.
“One of the things that is so important is to say Mass everyday,” he said. “It also gives me a structure to my life. So on those days I don’t say Mass — which are really very seldom — I sort of fumble around. I don’t know what to do in the morning. I have breakfast, and then what do you do after that?”
Funeral information will be provided as it becomes available.
