The Peru Gazette

By John T. Ryan

Retired U.S. Air Force Chaplain Father Richard Demers has been a priest in residence at St. Augustine’s Parish in Peru for about five years. A few months ago St. Augustine’s/St. Patrick’s Pastor Father Alan Shnob was having a few trees cut at St. Patrick’s Oratory. Father Demers happened to notice two slabs of wood from the fallen trees and asked if he could have them. Father Shnob couldn’t help but ask, “Richard, what are you going to do with those?” Today, Father Shnob knows only too well what his friend was going to with the wood slabs. The St. Augustine’s rectory is filled with Father Demers’ wood furniture (Click here to see more photos) – almost all of it fashioned from wood slabs.

Actually making furniture is an old avocation that Father Demers engaged in during his days in the Air Force and during his three years at Holy Name Church in AuSable Forks where he was assistant pastor prior to becoming a military chaplain. His Peru workshop occupies a few square feet in the parish maintenance building where he works next to the lawn mowers and snow plows. It’s there where he cuts, sands, polishes and stains his wood creations. While most of his completed works are in the parish rectory, one of his most beautiful items can be found at St. Patrick’s Oratory in West Peru. Father Demers made the side altar where the tabernacle rests. He fashioned the altar’s top surface from a door that was about to be thrown away at the former St. Augustine’s School. When he removed the door’s outer veneer a beautiful surface was revealed. He used white birch branches to decorate the sides of the altar and poplar logs for the legs.

Many of Father Demers’ works are decorated with beautiful etchings and sketches of Adirondack scenes and animals. He grew up in Constable on the western edge of the Adirondacks and even though he traveled throughout the world in the military he obviously never lost his love for the North Country. Father Demers’ talent also extends to painting. Several of his paintings decorate the rectory walls. They feature beautiful Adirondack scenes and are mounted in Adirondack style frames.

All of Father Demers’ works include his initials, the year of creation and his unique logo – an ant peering out of an anthill. Perhaps the ant is symbolic of looking about and finding a new perspective on life from an old hobby.