Oblate Father Wilfrid Upson, 80, died Sept. 5 at St. John’s Hospital in Maplewood. Father Upson served in the archdiocese as pastor of St. Mary in downtown St. Paul from 1976 to 1985. In 1998, he became a resident at St. Casimir in St. Paul and a pastoral volunteer at the Union Gospel Mission. He was noted throughout his priesthood for working with alcoholics and the poorest of the poor. For the past two years, he was a resident at the Cerenity Center in St. Paul.
A funeral Mass was celebrated Sept. 9 at St. Mary in St. Paul, with interment Sept. 14 at St. Henry’s Oblate Cemetery in Belleville, Ill.