Fr. HampeA memorial Mass for Msgr. Raymond Hampe will be celebrated at 11 a.m. Wednesday, June 19, at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church, 1 Seton Ct. in St. Charles. Msgr. Hampe, who died May 29 at the age of 96, was a parish priest, chaplain and educator. He spent 35 years as an associate director and later executive director of the archdiocesan Department of Special Education.
Raymond Hampe was born in St. Louis on May 26, 1928, to Theodore and Antoinette (Koncaba) Hampe and was baptized at St. John the Baptist Church. He attended St. John the Baptist High School, St. Louis Prep Seminary, Kenrick Seminary and Saint Louis University, where he earned a doctorate degree in clinical psychology. He was ordained by then-Archbishop Joseph E. Ritter on April 3, 1954, at the Saint Louis Cathedral.
Msgr. Hampe served as an associate pastor at Holy Family in St. Louis (1954-58), part-time teacher at Bishop DuBourg High School (1955-1958) and part-time associate pastor at Holy Cross in St. Louis (1958-1965).
In 1958, he was named associate director of the archdiocesan Department of Special Education, a role he served until 1989. He also was in residence at St. Mary’s Special School, while continuing studies at Saint Louis University from 1965-67.
Msgr. Hampe was a part-time associate pastor at St. Roch Parish in St. Louis (1967-70), resident chaplain at Mount Providence in Normandy (1970-82), part-time associate pastor at St. Stephen Protomartyr in St. Louis (1982-85) and chaplain at the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word convent in Normandy (1984-93).
In 1989, he was named executive director of the Department of Special Education, a role he served until 1993. That year he went to serve as chaplain for the Sisters of Divine Providence in Normandy and then as chaplain at St. Anthony Hospital in south St. Louis County, with residence at St. Simon in Green Park. Later in 1993, he went to be in residence at Mary Mother of the Church in south St. Louis County.
In 1995, he was named chaplain at St. Joseph Health Center in St. Charles, with residence at St. Peter Parish in St. Charles. He retired in 2011 and moved to residence at St. Robert Bellarmine Parish in St. Charles in 2013.
Msgr. Hampe served as chair of the board of directors with the Productive Living Board of St. Louis County and chair of the St. Louis Metropolitan Council on Developmental Disabilities. He also was chair of the archdiocesan Priest Personnel Board and served on the Council of Priests. In 1982, he was given the title of reverend monsignor by Pope John Paul II.
Msgr. Hampe donated his body to science.