His obituary:
“HOCTOR, Thomas The Reverend Thomas D. (Father Tom) Hoctor entered into eternal peace on March 22, 2011 in Alpharetta, GA. He is predeceased by his parents, Thomas D. and Mary (Keiber) Hoctor and his brother, Arthur E. Hoctor. Father Tom is survived by his sister, Marion A. Hoctor SSJ of Rochester, NY, his sister-in-law, Barbara L. Hoctor of McKinney, TX, and by Theresa and Robert Lynch of Alpharetta, GA, his loving friends and caregivers. He is also survived by his nieces, Dawn Kern, Debra Burns, and Kathleen Hoctor; nephews, Thomas C. and Arthur E. Hoctor; two grand-nieces and four grand-nephews, one great-grand niece and one great-grand nephew. Father Tom’s ministries for over 50 years included parish ministry at St. Thomas the Apostle, St. James and St. Louis parishes in Rochester, NY. His ministry in the field of education included teaching English language and literature first at St. Andrew’s Seminary, and later at both St. John Fisher and Nazareth Colleges in Rochester, NY. His third area of ministry was that of Catholic chaplain, first at the University of Rochester, where he had also pursued doctoral study. In his final and favorite full-time ministry, he served for 22 years as Catholic chaplain at the Rochester Psychiatric Centre in Rochester, NY until his retirement from full-time ministry in June of 2000. While in his retirement in Georgia, Father Tom served as chaplain with the St. Joseph Cafasso prison ministry at Hayes State Prison for seven years. The funeral mass for Father Tom will be on Friday, March 25, 2011 at 10:15 AM at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church. Interment will take place at the Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Rochester, NY. Northside Chapel Funeral Directors and Crematory, Roswell, GA, 770/645-1414. www.northsidechapel.com”
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Jim M. here: God bless you Fr. Hoctor, and may you rest in peace! I first met Fr. Hoctor at St. Thomas the Apostle Parish, when I was in the first grade. He heard my first confession, the day before my First Communion in 1960. In the early 1970’s Fr. Hoctor was one of my English instructors at St. John Fisher College. He was a kind and gentle man, and had a great sense of humor! One of his favorite expressions to his students was: “Shame the devil, and tell the truth!” I haven’t seen him since then, but knew that he was a chaplain at the Rochester Psychiatric Center. I will pray for him and for his family.
While respecting the decision of those in Georgia who decided his funeral should be from St. Thomas Aquinas,I suppose his past service there would have made him a person for whom it might be requested that his funeral be at St. Thomas the Apostle.