MONROE — A Mass of Christian Burial was held on Thursday, Dec. 22, at St. Clare of Assisi Parish at St. Victor Church in Monroe for Fr. Theodore Raymond Borger, 56, who died on December 16 at the Veterans Hospital in Milwaukee.
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| Fr. Theodore Raymond Borger |
Fr. William J. Seipp presided at the Mass and Fr. Michael E. Klarer preached.
Burial was in Ottumwa, Iowa, at Shrine Memorial Cemetery, 3002 N. Court St.
Father Borger was born in Ottumwa, Iowa, on August 14, 1955, son of the late Harold Raymond Borger and Gladys Jeanette (Turner) Borger. He attended Ottumwa High School dropping out in his senior year. He earned a General Education Diploma from the State of Iowa in 1973.
In 1975 he entered the Brothers of the Poor of St. Francis in Fayetteville, Ohio, and attended Chatfield College for Religious at in St. Martin’s, Ohio.
Leaving the friary in 1976, he moved back to Ottumwa, Iowa, and was received as a candidate for the priesthood for the Diocese of Davenport. He entered the Ecclesiastical Department of the University of St. Ambrose in Davenport, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in history, philosophy, and education in 1979.
For his major seminary education he studied at Saint Paul School of Divinity of the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minn. He was ordained to the transitional diaconate in Davenport in 1982.
He was ordained to the priesthood on June 18, 1983, in Davenport. He was awarded a master’s degree from the Saint Paul School of Divinity in 1983.
Father Borger served at parishes and taught at a high school in the Diocese of Davenport.
In 1985, he was commissioned a lieutenant (junior grade) in the Chaplain Corps of the United States Naval Reserve in Iowa City, Iowa, and assigned to duty as chaplain for the 4th Medical Battalion at the Naval Reserve Center, Rock Island Arsenal, Rock Island, Ill. He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant.
He was called to active duty in the U.S. Navy Chaplain Corps in 1986 and served in the British Indian Ocean Territories. He then served the First Marine Division at Camp Pendleton, Calif., and assisted at churches in San Diego.
In 1991 he was assigned as chaplain to the Support Battalion Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego, and was promoted to lieutenant commander. In 1994 he was assigned as the senior Catholic chaplain and division officer at the Naval Station 32nd Street, San Diego.
In 1995, he was involved in a single car accident which left him as a T8 paraplegic confined to a wheelchair. He retired and was added to the permanently disabled list of the Navy in 1997. He had been awarded many honors.
In 1997 he was contracted to serve as the Catholic chaplain for the Naval Amphibious Base, Coronado, Calif. He also served as chaplain to Casa Hogar, Santa Teresita, home for orphan girls in Mexico.
In 2006 he moved to Verona, Wis., where he served in various parishes including St. Clare Parish at St. Victor Church in Monroe.
Memorials may be given to St. Victor School, 1416 20th Ave., Monroe, WI 53566.