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Newly-ordained deacon dies after battle with cancer  

The Rev. Rick Hoecker

By Melodie Woerman

Editor, The Harvest

The Rev. Rock Hoecker died July 28 in a hospital in Nashville, Tenn. after a two-month battle with colon cancer. He was 55.

Hoecker and his wife Maria, both May graduates of the School of Theology of the University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn., were ordained as transitional deacons by Bishop Dean Wolfe June 29 in Sewanee.

The two were to have been ordained with four others in Topeka on June 11, but that changed when Hoecker was diagnosed shortly after graduation with colon cancer that had spread extensively.

Bishop Wolfe flew to Tennessee to ordain the couple, assisted by Bishop Porter Taylor of the Diocese of Western North Carolina. Maria Hoecker has been called as assistant at St. Philip’s Church in Brevard, N.C. in that diocese.

Hoecker had been released from the hospital only the day before the ordination service.

Afterward, Bishop Wolfe said that ordaining the Hoeckers had been one of the greatest privileges of his episcopacy. “The length of Rick’s ordination did not reflect the depth of his ministry,” Bishop Wolfe said.

The chaplain at the hospital where Hoecker had been a patient, the Rev. Dan Phillips, wrote on his web site about Rick’s last days there.

“I went to see Rick several times. Each day he grew weaker but still very peaceful. One day I was talking to him, and he seemed to transpose earth and enter this side of heaven. He said, ‘Someone is tapping me on the shoulder.’ Another time he said, ‘I never realized all the possibilities there would be in heaven.’”

A Requiem Eucharist for Hoecker was celebrated at Otey Memorial Parish in Sewanee, Tenn. Aug. 4. A memorial service also took place at their home parish, Trinity, Atchison, on Aug. 10. His ashes were buried in Trinity’s Memorial Garden.

Contributions for the future educational needs of the couples’ children, Chloe, 8, and Max, 5, may be sent to the Good Samaritan Fund and mailed in care of Trinity Episcopal Church, 300 South 5th Street, Atchison, KS 66002.