I met Diane as she volunteered at Big Cat Rescue. As Director of Donor Appreciation, I was amazed how generous Bill & Diane were to the exotic cats. 
Whenever I visited their home, I loved how they adopted Senior (domestic) cats so that they could live out their lives. 
Bill was always friendly and kind to me. Diane, I wish you peace.

Father Bill was a lovely man. He was kind, faithful, devout, compassionate, very intelligent, had a great way with people, and had a wonderful sense of humor. The dear man will be missed. I first met him around 1991 at a Madeleine L’Engle retreat at the Melrose Convent in Brewster, NY. I was a Presbyterian at the time. Madeleine got it into her head that I should become Episcopalian—at once—and why not this weekend. There’s a priest coming, she said. He can do the ceremony, and I will become your godmother, she said. To her it was that simple. I was young and the plan sounded good to me—never mind that I hadn’t had any instruction about what it meant to join the Episcopal Church. The weekend unfolded differently than anyone expected. Father Bill and several of us from the retreat were walking through a snowy path in the woods when Father Bill slipped and broke his leg. Of course he needed to leave the retreat and go to the hospital. I wonder what he would have said to Madeleine’s plan to convert me on the spot. Years later, I came to know Father Bill as the husband of my friend Diane. Father Bill and Diane visited me in Seattle once. They’d come from an Alaskan cruise. I hadn’t known that Father Bill sometimes served as a priest on board cruise ships. All I knew is that he and Diane were passing through Seattle. So it surprised me very much that our meeting place was at the docks next to one of those gigantic ships several stories high. Another time he and Diane and my family went to the aquarium in Mystic Seaport together. We ate junk food and watched the beluga whales. I always enjoyed Father Bill’s warmth and sense of humor.  We kept in touch over the years, mostly by phone. Father Bill gifted my children with a humorous picture book, THE CHURCH MICE, about a naughty cat who tries to reform.  He said it was one of his favorite stories from when his own children were young. I’m wishing Diane and all Father Bill’s family and friends love and many blessings.

Diane and family,
May the peace of our Lord surround and comfort you at this difficult time. 
Our deepest sympathy.

Our love and prayers are with Michael and his family.  God Bless Reverend Loring.

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William Loring

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William Delano Loring

May 17, 1937 – February 16, 2024

Blount & Curry Funeral Home-Carrollwood

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