File 7 - New Mission Search: Upper Volta (Burkina Faso)

Born on June 10, 1934, in Sydney Mines, N.S., Fr. Hugh received his early schooling in Sydney Mines and at Xavier Junior College in Sydney. He graduated in 1956 with a Bachelor of Arts degree from St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Nova Scotia, and entered the Scarboro Foreign Mission Society one year later. Ordained to the priesthood on August 21, 1960, Fr. Hugh was appointed to St. Vincent, West Indies, in 1961. IN 1975 he undertook his new assignment as director of student formation in Canada, and from 1980-82 he served in Halifax, N.S. promoting vocations and the work of the Society.

In 1982 he began missionary work in Chiclayo, Peru where he remained until recalled in 1991 to serve again as director of the student formation program. From 1992 – 1997 he served as a member of the General Council, and in 1995 took on the additional responsibility as pastor of St. Theresa’s Shrine parish in Scarborough, Ontario.In 1999 Fr. Hugh was assigned to work in Cuba with the Quebec Foreign Mission Society. This was an exciting assignment for him as Cuba was a new area to work for Scarboro Missions.

Fr. Hugh died outside of his residence in Havana, Cuba on November 13, 2001 after due to injuries sustained after being hit by a bicycle. A funeral Mass of the Resurrection was celebrated on Thursday, November 15 in Fr. Hugh’s parish of San José, Bahia Honda, in the diocese of Pinar del Rio, Cuba, where he was buried.