Priests retire effective Aug. 1/Father Charles Cummins

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OGDEN — Chaplain, teacher, track coach, parish administrator, pilot – in his 50 years with the Diocese of Salt Lake City, Father Charles Cummins has filled many roles. He will retire from his most recent position, administrator of the Newman Center at Weber State University in Ogden, on Aug. 1.  

A native of New Jersey, Fr. Cummins graduated from college with an accounting degree, then went through the U.S. Marine Corps’ officer training program. During his four years in the infantry, he was stationed in Okinawa and the Philippines as a member of a military assistance advisory group before the Gulf of Tonkin incident drew the United States into the Vietnam War.

He had a clear idea of what he would do when he was discharged from the military.

“I made this deal with God when I was a sophomore in college, and I knew I had two more years of college and four years in the Marine Corps – I never told anybody, not my parents – that I would go to the seminary after my four years in the Marine Corps, not to be a priest but to go to the seminary and find out if I wanted to be a priest,” he said. “And that was it.” 

Finishing his tour at Camp Pendleton in California, Fr. Cummins entered St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo, in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

He was ordained a priest on April 27, 1968. Afterward, while ministering in California, he would come to Utah to visit the Monastery of the Holy Trinity in Huntsville one week a year. The monastery closed in 2017, but that early connection led Fr. Cummins to serve permanently in the Diocese of Salt Lake City.

“Father Thomas Porter (one of the monks at the Trappist monastery) wrote to me and he said they needed a priest to be a chaplain at what is now Ogden Regional Hospital but at the time was Saint Benedict’s,” Fr. Cummins said.

During his 13 years as a chaplain at the hospital, he would also celebrate Mass at the Newman Center and at Saint James the Just Catholic Church in Ogden. 

When the diocese assigned Fr. Cummins to Saint Joseph Catholic High School, he taught the history of Christianity, coached track and cross country, and drove the school bus. In 2017 he was presented with the Christ the Teacher Award by Utah Catholic Schools.

While the priest was “a huge supporter of both our St. Joseph schools,” according to the award nomination form, Fr. Cummins believes he received much from working with the students.

“Teaching at Saint Joseph’s High School bolstered my faith,” he said. “I learned more than I ever learned in the seminary, preparing for classes for those kids.”

One of his most memorable experiences with the high school was a trip with the track team to Mesquite, Nev. Their van broke down in a rural area south of Provo. A sheriff’s deputy took the team members three at a time in his squad car into a nearby town. When Fr. Cummins got the van to the repair shop, “This guy heard about us and said, ‘We’re delivering an ambulance to Beaver,’” so the team piled into the ambulance. Once in Beaver, they headed to Denny’s for a meal, where they happened to bump into some coaches who were in town for a baseball tournament. Hearing about the St. Joseph team’s car troubles, the baseball coaches offered their van to Fr. Cummins.

The Jayhawks spent the night all sleeping in one hotel room – Fr. Cummins curled up in the bathtub – and made it to Mesquite the next day, where they won the meet despite competing against 18 larger teams. Fr. Cummins took them back to Ogden, then drove all night to return the van to the baseball coaches in Beaver. 

After his time at St. Joseph’s, Fr. Cummins was parish administrator at St. Florence Mission in Huntsville for 23 years while also serving as the Newman Center chaplain. Seven years ago, at the age of 80, he stepped down from the assignment at St. Florence.

 These days he celebrates Mass six days a week and offers Adoration as well.

“I really believe in Adoration,” he said, describing it as a time to listen to the quiet. “Praying is talking to God; listening to God is meditation.”

He also sees “the power of the Eucharist – what Jesus left with us,” he said.

In retirement, he plans to continue the schedule he has now: celebrating Mass at the Newman Center, going to the gym three days a week and golfing. 

“I don’t have a bucket list,” he said. “I think I completed my bucket list during my years now. … I’ve jumped out of an airplane, and there’s no place I need to go visit.”