Elbert St. K. Claire ’41

On Nov. 5, 1998, the Rev. Elbert St. Claire died of heart failure. He prepped at Lawrenceville and was the son of an Episcopal priest.

Saint had decided to go into the ministry long before graduation from Princeton, so in Sept. 1941 he enrolled in Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, Mass., where Jim MacColl was a classmate.

Graduating with an MA, MDiv, in Sept. 1943, his father presented him for ordination as a deacon at Trinity Cathedral in Trenton, N.J. He began his ministry in Fitchburg, Mass., and was ordained as a priest in Mar. 1944.

He became chaplain of the Episcopal Academy in Philadelphia and in Mar. 1952 was installed as rector of the Church of the Advent, in Kennett Square, Pa., where he remained for 27 years. During his tenure, his church grew from 300 to 1,200 members, necessitating the construction of a new, larger building.

Saint suffered his first heart attack in 1972, and a further onslaught in 1979 forced him into early retirement.

His first wife, Barbara Walton, died in 1981. In 1985 Saint married Jean Schmidt, who survives him. He had two children, the Very Rev. Kyle Jr. and Alice Long, and three grandchildren. Anne and John Krout attended the burial service. The class extends its deep sympathy to the entire family.

The Class of 1941