Father William Nadeau

As the youngest of three children, Father Bill Nadeau was born in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1938.  He attended Catholic parochial and high school in his home town and attended the University of Minnesota before entering the seminary of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate.  He was ordained to the priesthood in 1968.

His undergraduate degree was in Philosophy.  He also earned a M.A. in Theology and Criminology. His first assignment as a priest was to return to the seminary where he was the Dean of Students and bursar in the Oblate pre-novitiate seminary for three years.  During this time he also taught Criminology at Saint Francis College in Joliet, Illinois.

As a member of a missionary congregation, he was assigned to the Oblate missions in Stockholm, Sweden for two years.  He returned to the States in 1972, where he began ministering to inmates in the Texas Department of Corrections and with the Federal Bureau of Prisons.   As the Supervisory Chaplain with the Bureau, he ministered in the medium and maximum security facilities. He was accountable for maintaining the Pastoral Care Department which provided counseling and spiritual direction for all staff, inmates and volunteers regardless of their religious preferences.  He was responsible for recruiting and hiring chaplains of all faith expressions, promoting interfaith and ecumenical religious services, supervising prison volunteers and mentoring new chaplains, setting up outreach programs for the families of the inmates.  During his 25 years of prison ministry he was at medium and maximum security facilities in Texarkana, Fort Worth, and Austin, Texas, as well as, Terre Haute, Indiana, Phoenix, Arizona, San Diego and Long Beach, California.   Father Bill retired from the Bureau of Prisons, but not from the active priesthood.

His love for the outdoors, especially skiing and golfing, was the reason he settled in Northern Nevada and the fact that in 1998 Bishop Straling invited Father. Bill to serve in the missionary Diocese of Reno, Nevada.  Initially, he provided supply ministry in various parishes in the diocese before he was assigned as pastor to Saint Gall Church in Gardnerville, Nevada for six years.  His next and current assignment is here at Saint Francis of Assisi Catholic Church where he provides a viable and effective ministry to the full time parishioners, seasonal parishioners and many visitors.