The oldest serving deacon in the history of the Archdiocese of Detroit, Deacon Girard inspired others to love God, serve people
DEARBORN HEIGHTS — Deacon Lawrence “Larry” Girard, the Archdiocese of Detroit’s only centenarian deacon, passed from this life on May 25, at the age of 106 and a half.
Deacon Girard, who celebrated his 100th birthday by assisting at Mass in 2018, celebrated his half-birthday a few days before his death. His daughter, Clare Girard, told Detroit Catholic it was important to him that people include the “half” and not shortchange him on his age.
“He was just such a very sweet, gracious (man) and always grateful for the care that we gave him,” said Girard, who served as his primary caregiver. “You can’t really be sad about a life of 106.5 years fully lived — his impact was far-reaching beyond what most people in those late years are able to do.”
Deacon Girard was born in Windsor, Ontario, on Nov. 21, 1918, just 10 days after the end of World War I. Girard said he left home in the ninth grade to attend a high school run by the Congregation of Christian Brothers outside of Toronto.
He left the Christian Brothers in 1947 and moved to the United States with his family when his father took a job in Detroit. Deacon Girard became a teacher at St. Joseph High School, and met his wife, Jean, at Holy Redeemer Parish in southwest Detroit, where she had been born and raised. They married in 1951.
Clare Girard is the fourth of five children, and she says she remembers when her father was ordained to the permanent diaconate on April 25, 1976, by Cardinal John F. Dearden, as part of the Archdiocese of Detroit’s second-ever permanent diaconate class.
“He had worked for (Wayne) County as a social worker and worked there for 25 years, and he retired only five years after he was ordained,” Clare Girard said. “(When he died he) had been retired for 44 years, so most of the years he was a deacon, he was a retiree, too.”
Deacon Girard served his first diaconal assignment at St. Camillus in Eloise, followed by a longstanding assignment at St. Sebastian in Dearborn Heights, now St. Maria Goretti Parish, until his retirement in 2019. He often served at Wayne County General Hospital and Oakwood Hospital.
In addition to following his calling to serve as a deacon, Deacon Girard was also an active member of the Knights of Columbus, Fr. Patrick O'Kelley Council in Dearborn Heights.
Clare Girard said the 2020 pandemic ended her father’s active service, but not before he read the Gospel during Mass for his 100th birthday in 2018.
“I always wanted to serve the Church, but I just knew I didn’t want to be a priest,” Deacon Girard told Detroit Catholic in 2018. “When you think back on a century, or even 10 years, you see a lot of change in the Church. But being able to help the priest, connect the laity to the priest or be there when the priest is busy, that’s what I like the most. It’s why I became a deacon in the first place, and that’s why I still like being a deacon, to help the priest when he celebrates Mass. That’s when I’m the most happy, when I’m able to help.”
Clare Girard said her father continued to fulfill his duties as a deacon until the end.
“We had a parishioner who brought him Communion these last few months while he was home and unable to go to Mass himself, and he would ask my dad for his deacon blessing every day, and until about three days before he died, he was still giving his diaconate blessing,” Girard said.
Deacon Girard was predeceased by his wife and is survived by his children, five grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.
Clare Girard said her father remains an inspiration for the parish where he long served.
“We had a young man who was making his confirmation last year, and when the priest who was interviewing him asked what his inspiration was, he said Deacon Larry,” Girard said. “He didn’t realize the amount that he’d touched people. I can’t tell you how many people came up to me at his funeral saying they felt a personal connection to him; he had that effect on people.”
