ST. VINCENT de PAUL Founding Parishioners Reflect on
G An early gathering of St. Vincent de Paul takes place in the old Knights of Columbus hall before the original church structure was built.
Construction takes place on the new church building, 1984.
This picture of the original St. Vincent de Paul church building was taken the day ground was broken for the new church.
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44 Years
erri Dunning will never forget when she and her husband, Earl, moved to Arlington in 1965 and drove past a sign proclaiming “Population: 25,000.” The couple marveled at the low number, only to discover with the 1970 census just how rapid the area’s growth had been. Between 1960 and 1970, the new census revealed, the population had risen to 125,000! In tandem with our general population boom, the number of Catholics in the area had exploded, as well. In 1969, the Diocese of Fort Worth became a separate entity from the Diocese of Dallas, and by the 1970s, Bishop John Cassata had determined that more parishes were needed in the Fort Worth/ Arlington community. On Leap Day in 1976, Fr. Philip Johnson celebrated the first Mass for St. Vincent de Paul Parish. Parishioner Gerri Dunning remembers well our parish’s unlikely first location. “We were in the Knights of Columbus Hall, which at the time was in a strip mall where they worked on cars and that sort of thing,” Gerri says. “We had Mass in one room, and the children stayed in a nursery that was set up in the room with the bar!” Although the parish began with less than 100 registered families, these enthusiastic parishioners certainly knew how to roll up their sleeves and make things happen! A Pastoral Council, Finance Committee, and even a choir were quickly formed. Land was acquired, and by December 1977, Masses were moved into the structure that now serves as our administrative building. That same year, Gerri was surprised to find herself in a new role as parish historian, beginning the 40-plus years of her photo documentation for the church. “One day in 1977, I was sitting home minding my own business when the phone rang,” Gerri recalls. “It was Fr. Philip Johnson’s secretary, and he wanted to know if I would be willing to organize the pictures people had been handing in to them. So I’ve been taking pictures ever since. I have an archive of over 130,000 pictures, and the past few months, I’ve been working on tagging all the faces I can.” From its very first years as a parish, St. Vincent de Paul has been inspired by its patron saint and his devotion to works of charity. “We’ve always been very much about stewardship,” Gerri says. “Fr. Johnson taught us we were a stewardship parish and
