Dominican Father Giles A. Klapperich, 94, died Dec. 19 in Chicago.

He was born in South Dakota and survived all 15 of his siblings.

He entered the Dominican novitiate in 1946 and made his first profession of vows the next year at St. Thomas Aquinas Priory in River Forest. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1953.

He did parish ministry and was a chaplain in Louisiana, Oklahoma and Wisconsin before serving as a missionary in Nigeria. He went on to serve in Louisiana, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois and Colorado, including an assignment as associate pastor at St. Vincent Ferrer, River Forest. He moved to St. Pius V Priory, the Dominican assisted- living community in Chicago, in 2005 and relocated to Resurrection Life Center in 2014.