I am saddened to report that one of our own Tulsa Catholic Elders, Mr. Bob Coffey, has passed away at age 71, survived by his wife and four children. He was a convert, devout traditional Catholic since the 1980s, and one of the original members of the wider Latin Mass community of the Diocese of Tulsa. Many knew him from daily Mass, kneeling with head bowed low in the back of church, and often giving catechetical information in the church parking lot. He was also a weekly participant at the St John’s hospital Perpetual Adoration chapel for decades, where I first met him about 20 years ago.
Many knew Bob as an unabashed traditionalist, a strong Marian devotee, and a man with special personal devotions. Others also knew his love of nutrition and health, which he avidly studied and shared with others. Whether it was about the Faith, politics, economics, lifestyle, or healthy living, his dedication to pursuing truth was motivated by his strong desire to help his family, friends, and acquaintances to benefit from his discoveries.
But there are quite a few things many don’t know about Bob, and I am able to relate them because my wife is best friends with his wife, who approved this tribute. Bob was a self-employed attorney who dedicated his practice to employment law, defending very ordinary people from unjust treatment in the workplace, some of whom could not pay him. Often his services to the poor were free, and he often staid up very late studying each of their cases.
Before practicing law, Bob was actually a professional gardener. In fact, he was one of the main gardeners to build up the award winning gardens at Philbrook museum. With his gardener coworkers, Bob formed a locally followed folk band of which he was the lead writer and singer, waxing poetic about living in the modern world. A Renaissance Man, Bob also has graduate degrees in literature and Asian studies, having taught as a professor at the University of Tulsa and Oral Roberts University.
A unique man of many talents, and most of all one who put his Catholic faith at the center of everything, Bob Coffey will be greatly missed and remembered by our wider community for years to come.
PS Please have Masses said for Bob, though he did receive the last rites just before dying, which includes the apostolic blessing which remits all purgatory time.