Rev. Philip A. HAMILTON

HAMILTON, MURPHY, METZ, FLYNN, JAMES

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 5/6/2008 at 09:52:46

Telegraph Herald (Dubuque, IA)
November 2, 2005

The Rev. Philip A. Hamilton, 87, of 12 Padgett Court, Bluffton, S.C., formerly of Dubuque, and Omaha, Neb., died at 5:30 a.m. Friday, Oct. 28, 2005, at St. Joseph Hospital, Savannah, Ga. Memorial services will be at 4:30 p.m. Thursday at Christ the King Chapel on the Loras College campus, Dubuque, with Monsignor James Barta officiating. Funeral services will be held at 10 a.m. Thursday at St. Margaret Mary Catholic Church, Omaha. Burial will be in Calvary Catholic Cemetery, Omaha. Friends may call after 4 p.m. today at the church, where there will be a wake service at 5 p.m. The John A. Gentleman Mortuaries, of Omaha, is in charge of arrangements.

He was born on Oct. 5, 1918, in Clarion, Iowa, son of Stephen and Agnes (Murphy) Hamilton, who preceded him in death, along with his brothers, Joseph Hamilton and James Roland Hamilton. He was a graduate of Creighton University and received his doctor of philosophy degree from the University of Notre Dame. The Rev. Hamilton retired from the Air Force as a colonel. He was a longtime professor at Loras College. During the 1970s, he became the first director of the Civil Rights Commission in Iowa. Following his retirement in 1985 from Loras College, he moved to Hilton Head, S.C., where he was the pastor of Holy Family Parish. Recently, he celebrated his 60th anniversary as a Catholic priest.

Surviving are his sisters, Gwanetha Hamilton Metz and Mary Hamilton Flynn; a cousin, Madeline Murphy James; and many nieces and nephews.