For Immediate Release
CONTACT: Jocelyn Thomas, director of communications
JThomas@hnp.org
ST. MICHAELS, Ariz. — June 16, 2015 — Br. Glenn Humphrey, OFM, a member of Holy Name Province, the largest community of Franciscan friars in the United States, will celebrate 50 years as a friar this month.
Br. Humphrey has lived all over the United States and has devoted his ministry to teaching and counseling at hospitals and schools. He has served on remote Native American reservations in the West, and in poor neighborhoods in Harlem, New York City.
Br. Humphrey joined the Order of Friars Minor after graduating from high school in Kansas. He professed his first vows with the Ohio-based St. John the Baptist Province in 1965. After studying philosophy and theology, he made his final vows in 1968 and was sent to minister in Peña Blanca, a small New Mexican town between Albuquerque and Santa Fe. While there, he met the Pueblos and felt called to work with Native Americans.
His next assignment was to a small mission on the Hopi reservation in Keams Canyon, Ariz. While there, he became interested in counseling and began attending the University of Mexico, earning a master’s in guidance and counseling in 1977. In the 1980s, he began studying for his doctorate at the California School of Professional Psychology in San Diego. He took an internship at the New York University/Bellevue Hospital Center in Manhattan and lived with Holy Name Province friars while he was in New York City before officially transferring to the province in 1988.
After completing his doctorate in 1989, Br. Humphrey spent more than two decades working with troubled adolescents at programs in the South Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Harlem, as well as in schools, hospitals and treatment centers. He also worked with the New York City Family Court and the Board of Education.
From 2005 to 2011, he was a counselor at Rice High School in Harlem. After the school closed, he took a sabbatical before returning to New Mexico to enroll in courses at the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops. He received a certificate in digital photography from the University of Mexico’s continuing education program before beginning his current role as a counselor and photography teacher at St. Michael Indian School in Arizona.
Br. Humphrey has written and spoken extensively on psychological issues, including suicide, alcohol abuse, coping with disaster, cross-dressing, and parenting. He has served as a member of the American Psychological Association, the National Association of School Psychologists, the New York State Psychological Association, the Arizona Psychological Association, and the New York State Psychological Association Disaster Response Network.
He and other friars marking their golden and silver jubilees will be honored at a 5:30 p.m. Mass on June 24 at St. Francis of Assisi Church on West 31st Street in New York City. All are invited to attend.
About the Province
Holy Name Province is the largest of seven provinces in the United States that belong to the Order of Friars Minor. With ministries in 12 states along the East Coast, its more than 300 Catholic priests and brothers serve in colleges, parishes, urban ministry centers and a wide variety of social ministries, as well as in overseas missions.
The Order, founded in 1209 by St. Francis of Assisi, commemorated its 800th anniversary in 2009. Today, St. Francis, whose feast day is Oct. 4, remains one of the most widely known saints, revered for his affection for nature and desire for respect of all people.
Information about Holy Name Province can be found on www.hnp.org. News about the friars and their ministries can be found on the Facebook page of the Franciscan Friars of Holy Name Province.
Questions and photo requests should be directed to Jocelyn Thomas, HNP director of communications, at 646-473-0265 ext. 321 or jthomas@hnp.org.