Divine Word Father Richard Thibeau, 93, died Nov. 17.

Born in New York, he began his studies with the Divine Word Missionaries in 1943; professed vows in 1949; and was ordained to the priesthood in Techny in 1957.

For the first three decades of his priesthood, he served as pastor, teacher and overall general contractor in the United States, finding new ways to use the society’s buildings.

In 1988, Father Thibeau received his first foreign mission assignment, which took him to Cuernavaca, Mexico, where he served in an administrative capacity and built several parishes. Father Thibeau also provided pastoral care for the Zapotecas people in the Sierra Juarez Mountains. For this assignment, he needed more than his knowledge of Spanish; he learned Zapotecan, the language of the indigenous people.

During his years in San Juan Bautista Parish in San Juan Yaeé, Oaxaca, he was the only priest for a population of about 7,000, and he recognized the need for a medical facility. To reach the nearest hospital, residents had to travel five hours down the mountainside. To remedy this problem, Father Thibeau built Our Madonna of the Rosary Medical Center in Oaxaca.

In 2016, Father Thibeau moved to Divine Word Residence at Techny and continued his missionary ministries. From a distance and well into his 90s, he supported missionary projects in Mexico, including Instituto Infantil Teresita School in Morelos.