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Show 7 MISSION PORTRAITS: Father Liebler His parents and friends called him Baxter; an admirer dubbed him Padre of the San Juan; the Navajos call him e(fnishocli-i bitsii' neez-drag robe-(priest) -with-Iong-hair; many have called him crazy; but to the Rev. H. Baxter Liebler, 74 year old founder and first Vicar of St. Christopher's Mission to the Navajo, it's all one. He has fulfilled a lifelong dream of becoming a missionary to the Indians. The son of theatrical producer Theodore August Liebler II and Mildred Walther, he attended Adelphi Academy and Horace Mann High School; he received his BA degree at Columbia University in 1911 and BD degree from Nashotah House Theological Seminary in 1914. He was ordained priest in October, 1914. After his marriage in September, 1914 to Frances Louisa Marks he became Rector of St. Matthew's Church in Waukesa, Wisconsin, where he served until 1917, returning to New York as Curate of St. Luke's Chapel of Trinity Parish. In 1918 he was called as Rector of St. Paul's Church in Riverside, Connecticut, and was founder and priest-in-charge of St. Saviour's Church, Old Greenwich, Connecticut, from 1918 and 1943. But throughout the years the lure of the West still called and his love for the Indian people never waned, and in the course of a long vacation he rode his pony into the unchartered wastes of Southeastern Utah, where he found a people untouched by the Gospel, uneducated and illiterate, neglected and affiicted with many diseases. He offered himself to the Bishop of Utah, was accepted, and in 1943 with five lay helpers pitched the tents which were the first hOUSing of St. Christopher's Mission to the Navajo. He is the author of three books. His last, "When We Look Around Us," is available from the Mission for $2.50. Father Liebler has just completed a history of the Mission which will shortly be in the hands of the publisher. A gala celebration will be held at the Mission on October 5th, when his 50th Anniversary of Ordination to the priesthood will be marked. He cannot now mark these 50 years in the little Mission Church which was virtually built by his own hands. |