In Memoriam ~ Walter Richard Sipe ’50 Posted on August 8, 2018 in Obituaries Walter Richard Sipe ’50 Brother of Tom ’59, John ’61 & Michael ’64 Walter Richard Sipe, 85, died at his home in La Jolla, Calif., on Aug. 8 after a long illness. Walter Richard Sipe, born Dec. 11, 1932, was one of 10 children of Walter and Elizabeth Sipe of Robbinsdale, whose family car repair business remains open today. Sipe attended Saint John’s Preparatory School in Collegeville, Minnesota and went on to become a Benedictine monk and priest at Saint John’s, working as the Abbey’s personnel director in the late 1960s. He also studied at the Seton Psychiatric Institute in Baltimore, earning a certificate in counseling clergy, where he learned about the world of troubled priests. Sipe left the priesthood in 1970 and later married a former Maryknoll nun, Marianne Benkert. He worked as psychotherapist in Baltimore until they moved to California in the 1990s. He went on to become a world renown advocate for the survivors of clergy abuse. Richard Sipe is survived by his wife, Marianne Benkert Sipe, and son, Walter E.B. Sipe, both of California. Funeral services will be at the Newman Center on the campus of the University of San Diego at 4:00 pm on September 22, 2018. Click here for more information about the life and work of Richard Sipe.
