My Highway to Heaven journey with Father Tony
Special Guest Chapter by Timothy J. Hauprich
Click here for PDF version that includes other Father Tony stories by Ann Hauprich.

From 1984 to 1989 there was a popular TV show featuring the characters Jonathan Smith and Mark Gordon.

Jonathan was an angel portrayed by Michael Landon — who had earlier become famous for his characters on Bonanza and Little House on The Prairie. Mark was an ex-cop portrayed by Victor French. The show was called Highway to Heaven and was not about NASCAR.

 It had no car chases and did not necessarily showcase beautiful women, but rather focuses on a pair of highway travelers intervening on the lives of ordinary people who were challenged by real life problems. I had no idea that by 1991 I would be the Mark Gordon character balancing Father Tony’s real life portrayal of Jonathan Smith.

It was with memories of this program in mind that I wrote the eulogy that follows in letter form to be shared with those who attended a Memorial Service for the Rev. Anthony Maione at St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Church in Saratoga Springs, NY in 2006.


Dear Tony -

It’s been about 16 days since you found that beach in heaven and settled into your lawn chair to work out the latest New York Time’s cross word puzzle. There weren’t too many of us back in Saratoga who could match you. Maybe Bill Shakespeare or Charles Dickens can give you a little competition up in heaven.

I hope you’re hanging out with Larry the Bird or maybe one of your favorite dogs from your earthly days. I’m sure there aren’t any cats on your side of heaven. They are all hanging out with Bob Cinq Mars over by the Chicken Wings and Strawberry short cake. I’m going to guess you’ve already talked to Casey Stengel about the Mets and Weeb Ewebank about the Jets. I’m sure those two teams will soon be moving up in the standings in the months to come.

I’m also sure you’ll be getting a good seat for the Belmont this Saturday. Eddy Arcaro and Willie Shoemaker can probably get you some good information on the Big exactas coming up this weekend. If you see Seabiscuit, tell him we liked the movie. Julia Childs is probably happy to trade recipes with you in the kitchen and Victor Borno is likely writing a poem on some of your short order Super Bowl party specials.

I still see our Special Olympian power lifters from time to time. None of them forgot who you were. That “How’s Father Tony?” question is going to be a tough answer from now on.

We just had our eighth Hall Of Fame induction this past Tuesday. We inducted several of your friends and ex students into the club. I think you would be real happy with the choices this year.

Oh yeah, that football thing we were working on back in 1991 and 1992 finally was approved. The Saints will be back on the Grid-Iron this Fall. We’ll have to dust some of those weights off and get our junior high guys going so we can uphold the honor of all you heavenly Saints in the future.

I’m sure you were busy during the past few years in Orlando. We didn’t always get answers on our e-mails. I guess the answers will now come only through questions in the form of a prayer … but …we understand.

A lot of Father Tony stories are coming out of the archives lately — many with a humorous twist— like the time you were at a Super Bowl party and somebody asked: “Tony, what do you do for a living?” and you responded: “I’m a priest.” I know you didn’t want the behavior of the room to be in any way affected, but I tend to believe differently. When you weren’t wearing the collar, you caught a lot of people by surprise.

I know you really loved kids, especially babies and baptisms, but you were a little disappointed if the boys were not named Anthony or the girls named Antonia. You were just kidding, weren’t you?

I hope all the trouble caused by the Rameses–Hunt trouble is behind you now. It was getting tough when you could only swallow food by washing everything down with water. Now you can eat what you like and not have to visit the treadmill the next day.

I haven’t really changed much myself . . . all those tricks you tried to show me like how to drive ridiculous distances in short times without any sleep. I’m not there yet. The ability to run a retreat at 8 a.m. when you started planning at 4 a.m. — that’s not me. Those amazing trips to Europe where we would walk 12 miles and then ride a bus for 12 hour… I never caught on.

But your overall goodness … the ability to hear out every one’s problems… or organize a relief fund for hurricane victims or a Thanksgiving luncheon for the challenged youth or your countless trips to the hospitals to visit the sick or your amazing homilies at weddings and funerals. We are all still in awe.

You’re going to be missed, but never forgotten.

God Bless You, Tony!