A Mass of Christian Burial for Father James M. Dunne, former pastor of St. Camillus parish, Rockaway Park, was celebrated Dec. 22 at the church. He died Dec. 18.
Born in Brooklyn, he attended Cathedral College; Immaculate Conception Seminary, Huntington; and Catholic University, Washington, D.C. He was ordained June 3, 1961 by Bishop Bryan J. McEntegart at St. James Pro-Cathedral, Downtown Brooklyn.
He served as an assistant at St. Catherine of Genoa, East Flatbush, 1961; Ascension, Elmhurst, 1961-68; St. Robert Bellarmine, Bayside, 1968- 80; St. Francis de Sales, Belle Harbor, 1980-88 and was administrator there from 1988 to 1990.
He was named pastor of St. Camillus, Rockaway Park, in 1990 and served there until his retirement in 2007.
Auxiliary Bishop Raymond Chappetto was the main celebrant of the funeral Mass. Special concele- brants included Msgrs. Martin Geraghty and Vincent A. Keane, who preached the homily, and Father Richard J. Ahlemeyer.
Parishioners appreciated his homilies and wit.
He travelled to the Holy Land and Rome; he went with Msgr. Keane to Central America to visit the shrines of the Martyrs, including Sister Maura Clarke, M.M., whom he knew from Rockaway.
Father Dunne is remembered well by the people in the parishes where he served, as evidenced by the many families with whom he kept contact.
He loved to walk the Rockaway boardwalk. Before Superstorm Sandy, he could be seen several times during the day talking with others who were out for their daily walk. He missed those encounters after the storm.
Burial was in Calvary Cemetery, Woodside.