P. Parchinski, engineer who became a deacon

Paul Michael Parchinski was a chemical engineer who over a 34-year career worked his way up the echelons of the petroleum industry, retiring from Citgo in 2001 as senior environmental adviser.

It was then that he decided to take a job with an employer even mightier than the oil giants.

Mr. Parchinski became Deacon Parchinski, serving his home parish, Holy Angels Roman Catholic Church in Woodbury.

Instead of hazmat emergencies and executive meetings, he was called to assist priests; perform weddings, baptisms, and funerals; tend to the sick; and console the bereft.

Little more than a week ago, he made his usual rounds of the elderly and the ill. The next day he himself was a patient at Underwood-Memorial Hospital. Mr. Parchinski, 70, of West Deptford, died there of cardiac arrest on Saturday, Dec. 29.

Although long a religious man and a Eucharistic minister, Mr. Parchinski was caught off-guard when a priest approached him a dozen years ago.

"He said, almost prophetically, 'You're going to be a deacon,' " recalled Patricia, his wife of 21 years.

Already in poor health - heart disease, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, and a quadruple bypass in his not-distant past - Mr. Parchinski at first thought the priest's premonition was "off the wall," his wife recalled.

Still, "he felt led - led by God to the diaconate."

Mr. Parchinski spent most of his life on a disparate path. Born in the Poconos town of Blakely, he went to Archmere Academy in Claymont, Del., graduating in 1960. He got a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from Drexel Institute of Technology in 1967. He worked for New Jersey Zinc Co. in Gloucester City; Montecontini Edison in Novara, Italy; and by 1971, Seaview Petroleum in Paulsboro, where he managed the lab.

In 1991, Seaview was taken over by Citgo. But as Mr. Parchinski rose in the ranks, his health declined. In 1995, he had bypass surgery. By 2001, he was ready for early retirement.

Inspired by the prescient priest, Mr. Parchinski studied at the Deaconate Center in Paulsboro. In June 2005, he was ordained a deacon in the Camden Diocese, and plunged into a full schedule that took him in and out of hundreds of lives.

Despite his infirmities, "Paul felt very strongly that this was something he should do," his wife said.

Along with performing baptisms, weddings that did not require a Mass, and funerals conducted at funeral homes, he regularly visited the sick and elderly at Underwood, Brightview Assisted Living, Woodbury Mews, and Sterling Assisted Living.

"He didn't just preach at people," she said. "He talked to them, and they shared their problems with him. He gave of himself. He had an unorthodox way of doing things. He would always add a little joke to cheer them up."

Mr. Parchinski also sang a mean bass line, though he had no training. He was a member of four choral groups - St. Patrick's Church Choir, Camden Diocesan Choir, Cathedral Singers of Camden, and the Jubilate Deo Chorale. He had wanted to sing at the Christmas Eve midnight Mass at Holy Angels, his wife said, but this year, he lacked the strength.

A viewing will be from 6:30 to 9 p.m. Friday, Jan. 4, and 10 to 10:45 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 5, in the Holy Angels Parish Center, 96 Green Ave., Woodbury. A Funeral Mass will follow at 11 a.m., with interment in New St. Mary's Cemetery, Bellmawr.

Donations may be made to Holy Angels Parish, 64 Cooper St., Woodbury, N.J. 08096, or St. John of God Community Services, 1145 Delsea Dr., Westville, N.J. 08093.