The Bay City Tribune
Posted: Sunday, March 25, 2012 4:00 am

The Reverend Milton E. McWilliams, Jr., died in Fredericksburg, Texas, on March 17, 2012.

A Requiem Holy Eucharist will be celebrated at 11 a.m. March 31, 2012, at St. Barnabas Episcopal Church, West Creek and South Bowie Streets, Fredericksburg.

The Reverend Jeff Hammond will be the celebrant.

Other Officiates will include The Reverend Dick Elwood, The Reverend Harley Savage and The Reverend Dyana Orrin.

The organist will be Hazel Hansen. Interment will follow at the St. Barnabas Columbarium, with The Reverend Jeff Hammond as interment minister.

Reverend McWilliams was born September 7, 1920, in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, the capital of the one-time Creek Indian Nation.

His parents were Milton E. McWilliams, Sr. and Christine Moore McWilliams.

Milton grew-up in Ardmore, Oklahoma, the leading community in the one-time Chickasha Indian Nation, where he graduated from high School.

Milton earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Oklahoma in Norman, with a history major and mathematics and chemistry minors.

He was a member of Sigma Chi social fraternity, Tuff Muggs Cheer Squad, and was active in intramural sports.

After his graduation, Milton received a commission in the U.S. Army Artillery and was assigned to active duty at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma.

Following his assignment to numerous continental U.S. (CONUS) posts, Milton served with a regimental combat artillery unit.

In this capacity, he served with the First and Third Armies in the European Theater of Operations (ETO) during World War II.

Upon returning to the United States in 1946, Milton entered The Church Divinity School of The Pacific, Berkley, California, where he earned a Master of Divinity degree.

Milton later worked on his doctorate in Sacred Theology at The Pacific School of Religion in Berkley.

While in seminary, Milton married Gretchen Elizabeth Claudius on July 17, 1948, in St. John’s Episcopal Church, Omaha, Nebraska.

Gretchen also graduated from the Church Divinity School of the Pacific, Berkley.

She served as director of Christian education for several congregations in the Episcopal dioceses of California, Oklahoma and Texas.

Reverend and Mrs. McWilliams returned to the Episcopal Diocese of Oklahoma where he was ordained to the Diaconate in 1949 and to the priesthood in 1950.

He served congregations in Oklahoma City and Edmond, Oklahoma.

In 1957 Milton moved to the Episcopal Diocese of Texas where he served as the first chaplain and headmaster at St. Francis Episcopal Day School in Houston.

In 1962 Milton and Gretchen moved to Bay City, Texas, where he served as rector of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church until his retirement in 1986.

Milton served as dean of the South-west Convocation of the Episcopal Diocese of Texas for 23 years.

He was involved in such renewal ministries as Cursillio, marriage encounter weekends, beginning experience weekends, and other conferences for adults.

He was also involved in the Commissions of Liturgies and Christian Education in the Episcopal Diocese of Texas.

The McWilliams moved to Fredericksburg in 1986.

Milton served as supply priest to numerous congregations in the Episcopal Dioceses of Texas, West Texas and Northwest Texas.

In Fredericksburg, Milton and Gretchen were docents at the Nimitz Museum and were active in AARP.

He also served as an early advocate for the city’s food pantry and recycling center. In addition to his parents, Milton was preceded in death in 2006 by his wife Gretchen and, in 1978, by their son, David Milton McWilliams, a U.S. Navy nuclear operator on the nuclear cruiser Long Beach.

Their daughter, Stella Lynn Ortiz of Houston, died earlier this year.

Stella Lynn is survived by her husband, Carlos Ortiz.

Milton was also preceded in death by: his two sisters, Susan McWilliams Carlock and Gail McWilliams Peddy.

Reverend McWilliams is survived by: two grandchildren and their families, Steven Wayne Boessling of Houston, and Laurie Ward of New Braunfels; as well as his God-daughter, Elizabeth Rose Higby and her husband Jeff and family of Tucson, Arizona.

Milton is also survived by: three great-grandchildren, a sister-in-law, and numerous nieces and nephews, including Nancy Carlock Rogers and David Carlock, his wife Trixie and daughters Camie and Happy Carlock of Dallas.

The family is grateful to the McWilliams’ longtime caregiver Vicki Trammell, and to his physicians, doctors James Partin, Rad Kothmann and Mel Jackson, all of Fredericksburg.

The family further wishes to thank the faithful caregivers at Knopp Healthcare Center as well as the HCM Hospice staff.

Memorial contributions may be made to St. Barnabas Episcopal Church, 601 West Creek Street, Fredericksburg, Texas 78624.

Funeral arrangements are under the direction of Schaetter Funeral Home, Fredericksburg.

Expressions of compassion may be set to www.Schaetter.com or to the family of Milton McWilliams, attn.: Nancy Rogers, 7911 Caruth Court, Dallas, Texas 75225.

Milton E. McWilliams Jr.