Fr. Gerard (William) Taylor of the Holy Family was born on October 12, 1923, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to parents William and Anna (nee Letter) Taylor. He entered the Discalced Carmelite minor seminary at Holy Hill, Wisconsin in 1940. He made his religious profession on August 30, 1943. He studied philosophy at the Discalced Carmelite Seminary at Holy Hill and received a Bachelor of Arts in Religious Education from the College of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Washington, DC in 1949. He was ordained to the priesthood December 14, 1949.

He completed a licentiate in Canon Law at the Catholic University of America in 1953. In 1962, he received a Master of Arts in Religious Education from the College of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and in 1975 a Master’s in Social Work from Rutgers University.

Fr. Gerard had wide pastoral experience. Besides teaching in the Carmelite seminary, he was part of the formation team at different times at monasteries in Washington, DC, Brookline, Massachusetts and Holy Hill. He devoted himself to counseling and had experience as a group-worker and case worker for the treatment of alcoholism. From 1983 until 1984, he served as chaplain at St. Joseph Hospital in Elmira, New York.

He served as a chaplain in the United States Navy from 1955 until 1960 and again from 1962 until 1972. He saw service in Vietnam and was awarded the Navy Commendation Medal for Heroic Achievement for ministering to wounded men while under fire in October 1965. The official letter of commendation notes, “Despite the small arms fire and exploding satchel charges throughout the area, Chaplain Taylor unhesitatingly rushed to the area. With utter disregard for his own safety, he defied the grave dangers in order to render aid and comfort to the wounded Marines and Viet Cong and to administer last rites to the dead Viet Cong. In his own written account of the episode, Fr. Gerard added these details: “Later on one of the Viet Cong was brought to our sick-bay, regained consciousness and told me through an interpreter that he was a Catholic. He was just a young lad, and from what I could gather, he had been picked up in some hamlet and forced to come along with the Viet Cong. He died later that night… Although there were some good-natured comments made about my ministering to the Viet Cong, I was very proud that Colonel E. L. Brown insisted that the fact that I ministered to the enemy in my capacity as a priest be retained in the citation.” 

Fr. Gerard served as pastor at St. Florian Parish in West Milwaukee from 1960 to 1962 and as pastor of St. Mary of the Hill in Hubertus, Wisconsin from 1987-1988. He was a member of the Provincial Council of the Discalced Carmelites Washington Province of the Immaculate Heart of Mary from 1978 to 1984, serving as Vicar Provincial for the last three of those years. From 1987 to 1993 he served as Provincial Liaison for Aging and from 1990 to 1996 as Provincial Delegate for the Discalced Carmelite Nuns. He was also familiar to many for his work at the National Shrine of Mary, Help of Christians.

Fr. Gerard was born to eternal life on June 26, 1996 and is buried at the Carmelite Cemetery in Hubertus, Wisconsin.

“Fr. Gerry was such a people-person, and yet a very mysterious and solitary man. His understanding of human nature came not only from academia, but from a deep experience of the pain of life, which enabled him to minister to human suffering. Father Gerard was a true copy of Christ for all who were in his life. But I can clearly hear him say to me that all who were in his life were copies of Christ to him.” Anne Marie Murphy (Sister of Fr. Gerry)