- Fr. Maurice Chase
He was known as "Father Dollar Bill." wearing his familiar Notre Dame cap and passing out dollars every Sunday morning to folks who lived on Los Angeles skid row.
Born in California in 1919, Fr. Maurice Chase studied for the priesthood in Washington DC, and was ordained in 1953 in New York by Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen. He eventually returned to California and worked as a fundraiser and assistant to the president of Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.
Fr. Chase began his ministry among the city's poor and homeless in th early 1980s, influenced by the work of Mother Teresa. Over the years, as word of his work spread, he received donations from such people as Frank Sinatra, Gregory Peck, Bob Hope and Bob Newhart - many of whom he had met through his development work at Loyola Marymount. Over the years, Fr. Chase raised more than $100,000 for his skid-row ministry.
Fr. Dollar Bill died November 20, 2011, at age 92.
- Little Black Book, Diocese of Saginaw