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Father William J. Coy, M.M., a longtime missioner to Bolivia, died Dec. 18 at Dumont Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing Care, New Rochelle. He was 85.
He was first assigned to Bolivia shortly after his ordination in 1955, serving at parishes in Santa Cruz, Cochabamba and San Pedro in La Paz. He then was assigned to the Amazon jungle in northeastern Bolivia, where he established a number of cooperatives, including an electric and telephone co-op in the town of Riberalta and a food co-op along the Beni River. In 1984 he returned to the United States to do missionary work in San Francisco.
Three years later, he returned to Bolivia where he became embroiled in the county’s political unrest in Riberalta. Asked by a local military official to take over leadership of the town until the situation settled, he assumed the role as mayor for four months.
Two years later he was ensnared in another revolution and he and another Maryknoll priest were incarcerated for five days after being accused of being communists. They were subsequently released into the custody of the apostolic nuncio. He returned to the United States in 1994 to write a history of Maryknoll’s 50-year presence in Bolivia.
He retired in 2002, returning to Maryknoll Mission Center in Ossining.
Born in Danvers, Minn., he entered Maryknoll in 1947. He held a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Maryknoll Seminary.
A Funeral Mass was offered Dec. 24 in Queen of Apostles Chapel at Maryknoll Center in Ossining. His cremated remains were placed in the Maryknoll Columbarium in Ossining.
