Memorial

Father Philip Bryce, longtime and much loved Catholic priest, died peacefully early Monday morning at Mercy Health Center after a yearlong struggle with cancer. He was 68 years old. He was born in Tulsa on March 31, 1928 to Charles and Irene Brennan Bryce. He and his twin sister, Phyllis, were the youngest of nine children. The Bryce family was and is well known for their joyful oneness and their enthusiastic approach to life. After studies at seminaries in Oklahoma City, St. Louis and San Antonio, Philip Bryce was ordained by Bishop Eugene J. McGuinness on May 21, 1955. Father Bryce's life as a priest saw him assigned as assistant pastor at Bartlesville and Elk City, pastor at Altus and McAlester, rector of Our Lady's Cathedral in Oklahoma City, founding pastor of the City's Epiphany of the Lord Church, chaplain at St. Anthony Hospital, and finally at St. John Nepomuk Church in Yukon, a post he held at the time of his death. Father Bryce was a leader. Oklahoma bishops, fellow priests and lay people recognized him as such. He served as vicar general, consultor, member and president of the Priests Council, administrator of the archdiocese in 1977 in a period between archbishops, and director of the Center for Christian Renewal (now the Catholic Pastoral Center). He held many other posts and chaired numerous committees on behalf of the Catholic Church during his 41 years of priestly service. He was responsible for the construction of Prince of Peace Church in Altus and Epiphany of the Lord Church in northwest Oklahoma City. Even in his illness he oversaw the present construction of the new St. John Nepomuk Church in Yukon. However, the work which he held dearest to his heart was his ministry to migrant workers in southwestern Oklahoma in the 1960s. In his lifetime he had struggled with many personal ailments, but they barely slowed his intense service to others, especially the poor and the sick. Father Bryce is survived by one brother, Charles, San Angelo, Texas; five sisters, Sister Mary Charles Bryce, Atchison, Kansas, Margaret Edwards and Rita Burns, Tulsa, Rose Ann Sanders, Charleston, Illinois and Phyllis Brandt, Dallas; as well as a host of in-laws, nephews, nieces and cousins.