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Rev. William Josef Dobbels
(March 10, 1948 - December 22, 1990) U.S.A.

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Roman Catholic priest

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Bill Dobbels was the third child of Felix and Rosemary Divine Dobbels of Olathe. His parents divorced when he was young, and he moved to Texas with his mother. At 16, he returned to Kansas to live with his father, his stepmother and their two children. He began attending St. Paul's Catholic Church in Olathe and converted to Catholicism, the religion in which his father was raised. A good student at Olathe High School, Bill loved theater and performed in the school's productions.

Bill graduated from Olathe High in 1966, then briefly attended Washburn University in Topeka before enrolling at Kansas State University. On Sept. 1, 1967, 19-year-old Bill Dobbels entered St. Stanislaus Seminary in Florissant, Mo., near St. Louis. After his ordination, he worked for several years as a psychologist. In his spare time, he performed weddings and baptisms for family members.

Yet Bill had a secret - something he prayed he would never have to tell his family. He was homosexual and in 1985, he had tested positive for the AIDS virus. In the fall of 1987, Bill Dobbels got the news he had been dreading. The HIV had developed into full-blown AIDS and lymphoma. Doctors told him he might live a few months. AZT, an early AIDS drug, didn't help. And as he underwent chemotherapy, long stays in the hospital became routine.

In late 1990, Bill Dobbels suffered a setback. For four years, he had worked on his doctorate in clinical psychology. But now he was too weak to finish. Besides lymphoma, he contracted pneumonia and went into respiratory failure. Bill died at St. Luke's Hospital. He was 42.

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Source: excerpts from The Kansas City Star - © 2000

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