Pelletier, Abbé Joseph Alfred

Birth: Apr. 24, 1912
Winchendon
Worcester County
Massachusetts, USA
Death: Aug. 31, 1986
Worcester
Worcester County
Massachusetts, USA

Fr. Joseph A. Pelletier, A.A., died in Worcester, MA, at the age of seventy four. He was internationally known as a Marian Scholar and the author of books about Fatima, "The Sun Danced at Fatima", a best-seller, and "Fatima Hope of the World", as well as books about apparitions at Garabandal, Spain called, "Our Lady Comes to Garabandal" and "God Speaks at Garabandal" and finally, in 1985, he published "The Queen of Peace Visits Medugorje".

He was born as Charles Albert in Winchendon, MA, one of eight children born to Elizabeth McGlinchey Pelletier (1877-1926) and Dr. Alfred Pelletier (1876-1955), who was a country doctor for more than 50 years. Young Albert played basketball and tennis in high school and college. He graduated from Assumption Prep in 1924 and from Assumption College in 1932.

During his senior year, he decided to become a priest with the Augustinian Assumptionists and was ordained in Rome in 1937. He received his Baccalaureate and Licentiate in Sacred Theology at the Angelicum Pontifical Institute and then a Master's Degree in Sociology from Boston College. As an adult he was known as Father Joe and was associated with Assumption College, from 1937 to 53 and from 1955 to 1974 where he taught Sociology and Religion, was athletic director, tennis coach, and dean of Students. After extensive damage from the tornado in 1953, Fr. Joe was appointed as the director of reconstruction. During the mid-1950s he was also associate pastor and director of St. Anne's Shrine in Fiskdale.

As athletic director, he hired Andy Laska, a Holy Cross basketball star and Bob Cousy team mate, as Assumption College's full-time basketball coach. Previously, basketball coaches were professors who did the coaching as an added duty. Coach Laska brought Assumption to the finals of the NCAA's Division Two Men's Final Four on a record number of occasions. For this reason, Fr. Joe was named on the Founder's Wall at the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, MA, as the most influential individual in the development of Assumption College basketball.

At the time of his death he left two brothers, Dr. George Pelletier of Springfield and Pierre Pelletier of Worcester; seven sisters, Marie-Antoinette Pelletier, Evelyn P Luick, Anne P Gray, Jacqueline O'Neil, Colette Kometz, Andress Vadnais, and Marie L. Pelletier; his stepmother, Gertrude Annette D Pelletier and many nieces and nephews. Father was predeceased by his older sister Elizabeth Pelletier who died in 1980. For more about Fr. Joe, his parents and siblings visit http://gapellet.brinkster.net/frjoe.htm