Deacon Art was born and raised in Windsor with two brothers and three sisters. They attended Christ the King Parish, where he married his wife Donna over 40 years ago. Donna and Deacon Art have two adult daughters, Dawn and Sheri. They have five wonderful grandchildren. One of them, Layla, was taken to heaven by cancer in October 2019.
Donna and Deacon Art both retired from their day jobs on Halloween day of 2020. Deacon Art states: “It was not a scary day at all!” Donna’s career was spent mostly in Detroit hospitals and Deacon Art’s in different aspects of the agri-food industry, with some teaching at St. Clair. Deacon Art has a B.A. in Philosophy and a Masters degree in Organizational Management.
He was ordained a Permanent Deacon by Bishop Fabbro on November 9th, 2019 after completing the four year formation program. He had been helping at a community meal program at Iris House until the pandemic interrupted things. Right now, he administers and assists at an online bereavement program. He is also the editorial director of the Diocese’s Permanent Deacon newsletter. His Liturgical placement has been at Corpus Christi. He recently stated: “Fr. Pirt inherited me from Fr. Roche. (I am not sure he knew that I was part of the bargain, but he has kept me around!)”
Deacon Art loves being a Deacon and looks forward to his new liturgical placement with the South Windsor Catholic Family of Parishes and to meeting and serving the members of our new family.