Shrewsbury – Reverend Paul W. Lemire, 79, Retired Senior Priest with the Diocese of Worcester, died Saturday, March 14, 2015, surrounded by his loving family, in UMass Memorial Medical Center-Memorial Campus. His wife, Mary E. (Boyle) Lemire, died in 1982.
He was born June 17, 1935 in Worcester, one of four sons of the late Albert A. and Charlotte A. (Carlsen) Lemire. Fr. Lemire graduated from Saint Peter’s High School and Worcester State College where he received both his Bachelor’s and Master’s of Education. His first teaching position was with the Sutton School Department for only one year before transferring to Auburn High School where he taught Chemistry for 23 years, retiring June 30, 1985.
After retiring from teaching in 1985, He was called into his second vocation which he loved, and entered into Pope St. John XXIII National Seminary in Weston where he received his Master’s of Divinity degree in May 1989. Fr. Lemire was ordained to the holy priesthood June 3, 1989 by Bishop Timothy Harrington in St. Paul’s Cathedral in Worcester.
Fr. Lemire’s first assignment was to serve as the associate at St. Boniface in Lunenburg, then serving as an associate at St. Mary’s Church in Southbridge before becoming the Pastor of St. Thomas-a-Becket Church in Barre and later becoming a Senior Priest in Residence at Saint Joseph’s Church in Auburn and his last residency of Saint Anne’s Church in Shrewsbury.
Fr. Lemire was the loving father of Patricia A. Lemire of Southbridge, Paul W. Lemire Jr. and his partner Brenda Lemire of Webster, and Charlotte A. Broadard and her husband Anthony of Worcester, and his daughter-in-law, Robin A. (Hochevar) Lemire of Oxford. He also cherished his nine grandchildren, Shellie, Matthew, Missi, Ashlee, Marc, Jessica, Sean, Jonathan, and Kaytlyn; his four great-grandchildren, Marissa, Faith, Lilliana, and Harlei; and several nieces and nephews. Besides his wife, he was predeceased by his son, David M. “Red” Lemire, and three brothers, Donald, George, and Charles Lemire.
Relatives and friends are invited to visit with Fr. Lemire’s family Thursday, March 19, from 4-8 p.m., in the Britton-Wallace Funeral Home, 91 Central St., Auburn. A con-celebrated funeral Mass will be Friday, March 20, at 11 a.m., in Saint Anne’s Church, 130 Boston Tpke., Shrewsbury. Burial will follow in Saint John Cemetery, Worcester.
