Father Dale F. Barron, MM

Born: May 8, 1938
Ordained: June 12, 1965
Died: September 10, 2026

Father Barron died on September 10, 2026 in the Skilled Nursing Unit at Maryknoll, New York. He was 88 years old and a Maryknoll priest for 61 years.

Dale Francis Barron was born on May 8, 1938, in St. Louis, Missouri, the only child of Francis and Lorraine Barron. He attended St. Philip Neri Parish School in St. Louis and Sacred Heart Parochial School in Florissant, Missouri. He entered Maryknoll Junior Seminary in St. Louis in September 1952. He graduated from Maryknoll College, Glen Ellyn, Illinois, in June 1960 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy. He received his Bachelor of Divinity and Master of Theology degrees at Maryknoll Seminary, New York. When he was a Deacon he took courses in Psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles and in Clinical Pastoral Education at Los Angeles County Hospital. Father Barron was ordained a priest at Maryknoll, New York, on June 12, 1965.

His first mission assignment was to the Maryknoll Mission Region in Chile, South America. After language study in Cochabamba, Bolivia, he arrived in Chile on April 12, 1966. He worked for a year and a half in the rural parish of Nuestra Señora del Carmen in southern Chile. The parish school, with students to teach and boarders to feed, kept the missioner busy during the week. From October 1967 until January 1976, he was in Santiago, Chile at the Maryknoll Parish of San Alberto, which grew to have a population of 150,000.

After the military takeover of Chile in September 1973, Father Barron and a group of lay people started “comedores infantiles” to feed children whose fathers had disappeared or were out of work. In November 1976, he was assigned to the Maryknoll parish in Talcahuano, Chile, which had a parish school of 1,500 students. There he served as Pastor, School Administrator and Teacher until January 1986 when the parish was turned over to the Chilean Bishop to be administered by the diocesan clergy. At that time the parish school population had reached 3,400 children from Kindergarten through Grade 12. During his time at this parish, he worked with a team consisting of Father Charles Magsam, M.M. and Sister Joan Ratermann, M.M. giving weekend retreats for youth.

In March 1987, after a sabbatical year of study in Israel and Italy, Father Barron was assigned to the United States and the Development Department working out of the Houston, Texas House. Regarding this period of Society service, he said, “It is the Maryknoll Missioner’s task to keep the ideal of preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ before the minds and hearts of American Catholics and make them aware of the sufferings of people in third world countries.”

Father Barron was reassigned to Chile in 1990, arriving in July, when he began working at the Maryknoll parish in the poor suburban section of San Bernardo. In October 1990, he went to work with the Stigmatine Fathers in the poor suburban section of their parish in Santiago. In January 1991, this became Santa Margarita de Escocia Parish, and Father Barron continued to serve as its pastor. He served a couple of terms as Dean of the Deanery, and also worked with Cursillos de Cristiandad. In addition, he served as Second Regional Assistant for the Chile region from December 1991 until October 1, 1995, when he was appointed District Coordinator for the Santiago, Chile District.

Father Barron continued to live and work in Santiago, Chile, and was assigned to Senior Missioner Status in January 2014.

In 2018, Father Barron returned to the United States and was assigned to the Senior Missioner Community. He resided at the Society Center in Maryknoll, New York.

Father Barron is survived by his cousins. He was predeceased by his aunt.

Wake services were held on September 15, 2026, in the Holy Spirit Chapel and the Queen of Apostles Chapel at the Maryknoll Society Center. Mass of Christian Burial followed at 11:00 a.m. and was concelebrated in the Queen of Apostles Chapel. Father Peter Le Jacq was the Celebrant and Father Peter Barry was the homilist. Brother Joseph Bruener read the biography and Father James Hilgeman read the Oath. Burial followed in the Maryknoll Society Cemetery.