Father Luke Mikschl, former Canton pastor,
civil rights activist, dies ADELPHI, Md. — Father Luke Mikschl, pastor of Holy Child Jesus Church, Canton, from 1960 to 1979, died Oct. 16, in Adelphi, Maryland.
Father Mikschl, a Missionary Servant of the Most Holy Trinity, was active in the civil right movement during his years in Canton, especially in voter registrations drives.
In June 1966, he welcomed the participants — Dr. Martin Luther King among them — of the James Meredith March, from Memphis to Jackson, for an overnight stay at the parish facilities, after a violent incident outside Canton.
Father Mikschl also led a protest march to Sacred Heart Church, then all white, when a permit to build the present Holy Child Jesus church was initially refused.
A native of St. Paul, Minn., Father Mikschl attended St. Thomas College, St. Paul, Minn., and finished his seminary studies in Washington, D.C., where he was ordained in June 1953.
Before coming to Canton, he served on the faculty of St. Joseph Prep Seminary, Holy Trinity, Ala., and did parish work in Maysville, N.C., and Birmingham, Ala.
His 19 years in Canton were followed by assignments in Los Angeles, Calif. When he was 62, he began learning Spanish and was missioned to Mexico and then to Spanish-speaking work in Arizona, Minnesota, and Georgia.
The final six years of his life were spent in his order’s retirement home in Adelphi, where he died from complications from Alzheimer’s disease.
Following a funeral service in Adelphi, his body was sent to Holy Trinity, Ala., for burial on Oct. 22.
