Father William Galvin, M.M., a native of Kew Gardens who was celebrating his 60th year as a Maryknoll priest, died April 21 at Mission St. Teresa in Maryknoll, N.Y. He was 86.

Father Galvin attended Our Lady Queen of Martyrs School, Forest Hills, and Bishop Loughlin H.S., Fort Greene, before entering Maryknoll in 1947. He was ordained a priest June 9, 1956 by Cardinal Francis Spellman in the Maryknoll Chapel.

He was first missioned to Hawaii, 1956-59, and then to the Philippines, 1959-65.

In 1965, he was named spiritual director of the Maryknoll College seminary, Glen Ellyn, Ill., but returned to the Philippines one year later.

He served there as a parish priest, Regional Superior, chairman of the Association of Major religious Superiors of Men in the Philippines.

In 1974, he was called back to the U.S. to become director of the Maryknoll Mission Research and Planning Department. He oversaw the opening of new missions in Bangladesh, Sudan, Brazil, Samoa, and Nepal.

In 1977, he volunteered to be a member of the first team to go to Nepal. He spent nine years in Katmandu. He also spent some time in India.

In 1986, he was named director of orientation (Novitiate) for Maryknoll Seminarians in New Rochelle.

In 1990, he was appointed coordinator of the Maryknoll Spiritual Retreat Program in the Holy Land. In 1996, he became coordinator of continuing formation and director of the Maryknoll Formation and Education Department.

In 1999, his lifelong dream of being a missionary to China was fulfilled when he was assigned to the Hong Kong region to teach English at Foshan University.

In 2003, he moved further north to Liaoning province, where he taught at the regional seminary and Northeastern University. In 2010, he was forced to retire from teaching because of old age at 65 by the Chinese government.

He retired to Stanley House in Hong Kong where he wrote, was chaplain to the weekly Alpha Program on Christianity and led a Bible discussion group for men. He also gave retreats in Thailand, Korea and the United States until medical issues required a return to Maryknoll in New York in 2015.

One year ago, Father Galvin was the subject of an interview in The Tablet and on NET-TV.

Burial was in the Maryknoll Society Cemetery in Ossining, N.Y.