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OBITUARY:
Longtime pastor found dead in park
By Ryan Vaillancourt
GLENDALE — The Rev. Mark Jaufmann, the longtime pastor at the Ecumenical Catholic Community of St. Paul and St. Andrew in south Glendale and chaplain at Glendale Memorial Hospital, was found dead Friday in Griffith Park.
A hiker found Jaufmann between 6 and 6:30 p.m., said Patti Briones, a Jaufmann parishioner who helped identify the 51-year-old’s body. Coroners have not determined the cause of death, but foul play is not suspected, Briones said.
An autopsy was completed Sunday, but additional reports needed to determine the cause of death could take six to eight weeks, said Ed Winter, assistant chief of investigations for the Los Angeles County coroner.
Jaufmann overcame a bout with cancer about five years ago, and he was still taking cancer-related medication at the time of his death, but there is no indication that the medication and his death are connected, Winter said.
A longtime member and former president of the Glendale Religious Leaders Assn., Jaufmann was considered a deeply devoted and free-thinking spiritual figure, said the Rev. Frank Brougher, pastor at the First Baptist Church of Glendale, who served with Jaufmann on the association.
Friends also described him as a die-hard Dodgers fan.
“We got close because he has an ecumenical view of the whole church and indeed of life, so we’d get into a lot of discussion that we would see as theological, but most people would see it as not just theological but social, political, denominational and ecological too, with the environment,” Brougher said.
Jaufmann was raised a Roman Catholic, but his progressive outlook on theology led him to the Ecumenical Catholic Communion, an offshoot of the Catholic church that embraces women ministers, married priests and homosexual parishioners, Brougher said.
“That was important to him, although he got along with the Roman Catholics very well,” Brougher said.
As chaplain at Glendale Memorial, Jaufmann provided counseling for grief, drug and alcohol addiction and oversaw the hospital’s annual grant donations to local nonprofit organizations.
The way he conducted weekly counseling sessions earned Jaufmann a reputation among patients for being honest, jovial and open about his own personal struggles, said Joe Amico, the hospital’s program director for intensive outpatient programs.
“His whole philosophy was about how he could get folks to look more positively about what was going on in their life and urge them to be lifted up,” Amico said. “I know in the groups if there was a lot of silence and nobody seemed to be wanting to say much, then he’d start talking about himself. He wasn’t afraid to share about his own life and his own struggles to show that there’s a way to get through it and see that there’s a positive on the other side.”
In addition to his role as chaplain, Jaufmann was promoted about a year ago to the hospital’s Director of Mission Integration and charged with ensuring that the hospital’s mission is realized, Amico said.
“Our mission is: With caring and compassion, we will improve the health and quality of life of the people we serve,” Amico said. “That really was how he conducted himself. He would always confront administrators and programs in the hospital to help them better understand how they could live out the mission of the hospital.”
In his new post, Jaufmann established a mission council that, once a month, would recognize an employee, volunteer or patient who had done an outstanding job honoring the hospital mission, Amico said.
But those who knew him say there was no better embodiment of the hospital’s mission than Jaufmann himself.
“He was just a joy to be around,” said Wanda Goudie, one of Jaufmann’s parishioners who volunteered as his assistant at the hospital. “He’d tease me and joke; he was Father Mark, and his last year, he just filled the hospital with his smile. Even if he didn’t feel good, he’d smile. No one was ever like him. There will never be another Father Mark.”
Memorial services are scheduled for 11 a.m. Saturday morning at the Ecumenical Catholic Community of St. Andrew and St. Mark, 1003 S. Verdugo Road. A rosary meeting and viewing is planned for 5 to 9 p.m. Friday.
A hiker found Jaufmann between 6 and 6:30 p.m., said Patti Briones, a Jaufmann parishioner who helped identify the 51-year-old’s body. Coroners have not determined the cause of death, but foul play is not suspected, Briones said.
An autopsy was completed Sunday, but additional reports needed to determine the cause of death could take six to eight weeks, said Ed Winter, assistant chief of investigations for the Los Angeles County coroner.
Jaufmann overcame a bout with cancer about five years ago, and he was still taking cancer-related medication at the time of his death, but there is no indication that the medication and his death are connected, Winter said.
A longtime member and former president of the Glendale Religious Leaders Assn., Jaufmann was considered a deeply devoted and free-thinking spiritual figure, said the Rev. Frank Brougher, pastor at the First Baptist Church of Glendale, who served with Jaufmann on the association.
Friends also described him as a die-hard Dodgers fan.
“We got close because he has an ecumenical view of the whole church and indeed of life, so we’d get into a lot of discussion that we would see as theological, but most people would see it as not just theological but social, political, denominational and ecological too, with the environment,” Brougher said.
Jaufmann was raised a Roman Catholic, but his progressive outlook on theology led him to the Ecumenical Catholic Communion, an offshoot of the Catholic church that embraces women ministers, married priests and homosexual parishioners, Brougher said.
“That was important to him, although he got along with the Roman Catholics very well,” Brougher said.
As chaplain at Glendale Memorial, Jaufmann provided counseling for grief, drug and alcohol addiction and oversaw the hospital’s annual grant donations to local nonprofit organizations.
The way he conducted weekly counseling sessions earned Jaufmann a reputation among patients for being honest, jovial and open about his own personal struggles, said Joe Amico, the hospital’s program director for intensive outpatient programs.
“His whole philosophy was about how he could get folks to look more positively about what was going on in their life and urge them to be lifted up,” Amico said. “I know in the groups if there was a lot of silence and nobody seemed to be wanting to say much, then he’d start talking about himself. He wasn’t afraid to share about his own life and his own struggles to show that there’s a way to get through it and see that there’s a positive on the other side.”
In addition to his role as chaplain, Jaufmann was promoted about a year ago to the hospital’s Director of Mission Integration and charged with ensuring that the hospital’s mission is realized, Amico said.
“Our mission is: With caring and compassion, we will improve the health and quality of life of the people we serve,” Amico said. “That really was how he conducted himself. He would always confront administrators and programs in the hospital to help them better understand how they could live out the mission of the hospital.”
In his new post, Jaufmann established a mission council that, once a month, would recognize an employee, volunteer or patient who had done an outstanding job honoring the hospital mission, Amico said.
But those who knew him say there was no better embodiment of the hospital’s mission than Jaufmann himself.
“He was just a joy to be around,” said Wanda Goudie, one of Jaufmann’s parishioners who volunteered as his assistant at the hospital. “He’d tease me and joke; he was Father Mark, and his last year, he just filled the hospital with his smile. Even if he didn’t feel good, he’d smile. No one was ever like him. There will never be another Father Mark.”
Memorial services are scheduled for 11 a.m. Saturday morning at the Ecumenical Catholic Community of St. Andrew and St. Mark, 1003 S. Verdugo Road. A rosary meeting and viewing is planned for 5 to 9 p.m. Friday.
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