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'Special' minister counsels county's Finest
Rev. Ed Wisbauer: Man of the Year in Religion
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| | | Courtesy SCPD (click for larger version) | |
December 23, 2009 | 12:12 PM
A whirlwind of superlatives swirls at the mention of Rev. Ed Wisbauer, Suffolk County Police Department's chief of chaplains and our Man of the Year in Religion.
"He is an outstanding minister," said SCPD Commissioner Richard Dormer. "He has a great heart… He is very understanding, and he serves all officers indefatigably. He is well aware of the stress of police work. He is totally deserving of the title of Man of the Year."
"I've known him for 30 years," said Deputy Chief of Detectives Frank Stallone, until recently commanding officer at the 6th Precinct in Selden. "He is a great adviser, a compassionate man who is always there in time of need. I consider him an outstanding Episcopal minister. He is semi-retired now and serves at All Souls in Stony Brook as interim minister; this after his long service at St. John's in Ronkonkoma."
"He became police chaplain in 1972, but I knew him from a professional point of view for many years," said Robert Creighton, Smithtown councilman and former SCPD commissioner, "He's been to our home many times… He was present at so many incidents, crime scenes, motor vehicle accidents or any time an officer was injured in any way on the job. He is a comforter. He has a wonderful disposition and is the best minister I know. He helps people with personal problems. He has a real calling; a very special kind of guy."
Born and raised in Queens, Ed Wisbauer attended Bayside High School where he was a member of the swim and track teams. He swam the 100-yard backstroke and ran the half-mile, participating in the National Invitation track meet in Madison Square Garden. He went on to the College of William and Mary, graduating with a degree in journalism in 1952.
Around this time he began to feel a call to the ministry. Wisbauer consulted his father about what he felt was his vocation. His father advised him to put in three years at the work he had chosen in a Madison Avenue advertising firm.
Wisbauer worked as an advertising rewrite man at Union Carbide International, eventually becoming advertising production manager.
"I would spend time at St. Mary the Virgin on 46th Street off Sixth praying and asking for guidance," Wisbauer said. "One day it hit me like a ton of bricks — the ministry." He went on to graduate from General Theological Union with a STB (Sacrae Theologiae Baccalaureatus). "I can tell you 90 percent of the 58 graduates were Episcopalians," the Rev. Wisbauer said of his graduating class. "The dean called me over and asked, 'Who do you know?' It seems Bishop James Pernette DeWolfe wanted me out in Garden City at Incarnation parish to work with him. He was extremely helpful to me."
"In 1958 I was in a motor vehicle accident and the bishop himself got me to the hospital," the reverend recalled. "I recovered and stayed on as chaplain, ministering to patients for a while before being sent to St. Mary's in Ronkonkoma." He describes the assignment as "a little mission church built in 1867 with a congregation of about 50." He arrived there on Sept. 1, 1959, and "pretty soon the congregation [grew] to about 300."
The Rev. Wisbauer married in 1954, and he and his wife Joan were soon blessed with two daughters, Susan and Mary. Joan died in 1990. Six years later he remarried, but sadly his wife Doreen passed away six years after that.
"My connection with the chaplaincy in the police department in 1971 began with the commission of a crime," Wisbauer said as he described how he came to be affiliated with the SCPD. "A gang had been operating in the Ronkonkoma area committing burglaries and criminal mischief. One day I saw a vehicle being parked in the church lot that I connected with the one used in a number of crimes. I called the police and was told to report it if it moved. I parked my car in such a way that it couldn't get out. Then two individuals arrived, occupied the car, but found it blocked. I called 911 again and as they tried to leave in the car I pulled around front and blocked it again." Wisbauer thinks now he may have been putting himself in harm's way, but at the time just did what he thought was right. "The police arrived and took the two into custody.
"Ironically, I was later on prison ministry, and was walking along a cell block tier," Wisbauer recalled. "One of the incarcerated called out to me. It was the gang leader himself, and he said something to the effect that when he gets out, my family better watch out. Sure enough he appeared at the door of the parish house, stared at me a moment and came out with, 'Will you please baptize my child?' Of course I did, but I never saw him again."
Wisbauer became PBA chaplain in the 60s and chief of chaplains in 1972. "My duties include assigning clergy to funerals, wakes, funerals and hospitals. I work with six or seven clergy."
And does so very well, according to all who know of the Rev. Ed Wisbauer's ministry. To reprise Bob Creighton's remark, "He's a special kind of guy."
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