Rev. Edward J. Kimpel | Pastor, educator, 84

The Rev. Edward J. Kimpel, 84, of Paoli, a former pastor and educator, died of a stroke Sunday at St. Martha Manor in Downingtown.

Father Kimpel grew up in South Philadelphia and graduated from Southeast Catholic High School, now SS. John Neumann and Maria Goretti High School. He entered the Norbertine Order of Catholic priests in 1942. He earned a bachelor's degree from St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wis., and a master's degree in mathematics from Villanova University.

After his ordination in 1949, he returned to Southeast Catholic as a math teacher and was later chairman of the math department. Father Kimpel taught until 1970, and then for 12 years was associate pastor in parishes in suburban Philadelphia, South Jersey, and Wilmington.

From 1982 to 1985, he was pastor of St. Gabriel Parish in Grays Ferry in Philadelphia. The area was battling drug problems and racial tensions, and in sermons he preached love of neighbor. "Violence cannot be the answer," he told a reporter in 1984 and said that "95 percent of the people got along well."

From 1985 until 1995, Father Kimpel assisted in parishes in the Philadelphia Archdiocese, including St. Gabriel's.

He retired in 1995 to a life of prayer at Daylesford Abbey in Paoli and was available to visitors for counseling and confessions.

Father Kimpel is survived by a brother, William, and nieces and nephews.

A Funeral Mass will be said at 2:30 p.m. today. Friends may call at 1 p.m. at Daylesford Abbey, 220 S. Valley Rd., Paoli. Burial will be in the abbey cemetery.