Fr. Peter Coffey SDS

Father Peter James Coffey SDS, was born in the Bronx, New York, to Denis and Winifred (Wallace) Coffey on May 30, 1934. He attended St. Gabriel’s Elementary School in East Elmhurst on Long Island. Considering the priesthood as a possible option for his future, he enrolled in Mother of the Savior Seminary in Blackwood, New Jersey, where he became acquainted with the Society of the Divine Savior (Salvatorians). He left the seminary during his fourth year, and he finished his high school education at Flushing High School in Flushing, New York. After this he attended St. John’s University in Brooklyn, earning his bachelor’s degree. He then spent two years in the U.S. Army, working in the Education Center of the U.S. General Depot in Brancone, France.

For a time, he worked as an insurance underwriter in New York, but the idea of becoming a priest kept coming back to him, so he decided to apply for membership in the Salvatorian community he already knew. He entered the Society’s Novitiate in Colfax, Iowa, in the Fall of 1963, and he made his first profession of vows there on September 8, 1964. Although he returned to using his baptismal name when it was permitted in the mid-1960's, he was known for a short time by his religious name “Denis Bernard” which he received when he entered Novitiate. He completed his theology studies at Catholic University in Washington, DC, and lived with fellow Salvatorian students at Divine Savior Seminary in nearby Lanham, Maryland. He was ordained a priest at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in DC on February 17, 1968. In his first ministry assignment as a priest, “Fr. Pete” (as he came to be known) served at St. Joseph’s Parish in Huntsville, Alabama, for two years. This was followed by three years as a member of the Pastoral Team at St. Mark’s Parish in Phoenix, Arizona. During a year-long sabbatical, he took classes at the School of Applied Theology in Berkeley, California. He then served as a member of the Pastoral Team of St. Jerome’s Parish in Battle Creek, Michigan for seven years. During this time, he and the other Team members helped form and nurture the vocations of the first group of Lay Salvatorians in Michigan. He was Pastor of St. Ann’s Parish in Cassopolis for the next six years; then spent two years as Pastor of two parishes: St. Mary of the Assumption in Three Oaks, and St. Agnes Parish in Sawyer. The parishes were eight miles apart from each other.

Taking a break for the next year, Fr. Pete entered a program of advanced studies that was being offered at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, not far from where he had been ministering. In 1990, he began a five-year stint as Pastoral Team member in the Chilton (Wisconsin) Interparish Ministry, which the Society began as a way to send a few priests and brothers to minister to several parishes in a rural area at the same time. Each individual parish got to know more than just one priest assigned to them. Fr. Pete was Pastor at St. Elizabeth’s in Kloten and Holy Trinity in Jerico. He moved to middle Tennessee in 1995, where the priests ministered to three parishes: St. Thomas Aquinas in Cookeville, St. Andrew’s in Sparta, 15 miles to the south, and Divine Savior Mission in Celina, 45 miles to the north on the Kentucky border. During his time there, they undertook the monumental task of building a new church for the community in Cookeville, which had outgrown the original church structure that was built in 1950.

Two years after the new church building was completed and the parishes were going strong, Fr. Pete decided it was time to retire. He moved back to Flushing, New York, and lived with his sister in her home. In 2021, both of them began experiencing major health issues, and the following year, they moved to an assisted living facility in nearby Bayside. In 2025, a year after his sister’s death, Fr. Pete moved to De La Salle Hall (a ministry of the Brothers of the Christian Schools) in Lincroft, New Jersey, where he could receive greater individual care. He died there peacefully on the morning of September 10, 2026, at the age of 92. Although most people viewed Fr. Pete as somewhat reserved and introspective, he could also be a no-nonsense kind of man who could get things done effectively and in good time. He was also admired by his parishioners for his commitment to justice and peace in the world.

Fr. Pete is preceded in death by his parents, Denis and Winifred; brothers Dennis Coffey and Michael Wallace, and sister Margaret Coffey. He is fondly remember by other relatives as well as his brothers and sisters in the Salvatorian Family.

Visitation Friday, September 25, from 9:00 AM to 10:00 AM at St. Pius X Church, 2506 N. Wauwatosa Ave., Wauwatosa, followed by a Mass of Christian Burial at 10:00 AM. Interment will be Friday, 1:00 PM at Salvatorian Cemetery on Loretto Hill in St. Nazianz, WI.