“Our third pastor, Father Burkley, was ordained a year early by the Bishop in order to pioneer a mission for the deaf in Columbus. He ministered to the Catholic population of the Ohio School for the Deaf and served as assistant pastor and pastor at Saint Mary’s Church. Father Burkley was the first priest to say Mass in sign language. During the twenty-five years of his mission, he also had deaf guests visit the grade school and high school classrooms. On one such occasion he brought a deaf and dumb lady into the second-grade classroom, He called up a student, Bob Wunderlin, who had a deaf uncle and knew sign language, to talk to her. When they were finished talking she patted him on the cheek and called him fatty because of his chubby cheeks. He retreated to his seat and put his head down in great embarrassment. Decades later, he asked Father Burkley about the lady, Father Burkley replied, ‘Oh, didn’t you know, that nice lady, was Helen Keller.’” -by Ed Quickert, St. Mary’s Archivist