Before coming to St. Paul’s, Nantucket, Gene was the Interim Rector at St. Paul’s in Riverside, CT. In both parishes, Gene has found a focus the desire to do the will of God on earth as it is in heaven. The spirit at St. Paul’s, Nantucket continues to be  one of courage, caring and the parishioners’ constant prayer for the God given capacity to love and care for all of God’s creation.

Gene was born in Spartanburg, SC and continues to own a small farm, complete with horses and assorted dogs, in a small community between Charlotte and Asheville, NC.  He and his wife Cathy, a Nurse- Practitioner, have a grown daughter, Laura McDowell-Townsend.  Laura ( Becca) is also a nurse and works in the Chapel Hill/Raleigh community of North Carolina.

Gene is a proud graduate of Wofford College- BA (Spartanburg, SC), Yale Divinity School- MDiv, and Boston University- ThD. He has over 25 years of experience as a parish priest and prior to ordination in 1986 was Professor of Religion at Brevard College (Brevard, NC). Gene is a Richard Hooker scholar and continues to work on Richard Hooker curricula which he started through the Department of Ministry Development in New York.

In the spring of 2008, Gene taught at the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale University and became a member of their National Advisory Board.

In the 1980’s Gene co-founded a wilderness education school and still continues to lead backcountry and wilderness trips and  programs.  Related to this, immediately following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, Gene organized a community wide response that consisted of five teams working to bring healing and hope to ravaged communities in Mississippi.

Prior to joining St. Paul’s, Nantucket, Gene served as Canon Theologian to the Episcopal Diocese of Western North Carolina. He has been active in the National Episcopal Church and, after fourteen years, continues to work with the Board of Examining Chaplains and the  General Ordination Exams for new clergy. He has served as Vice Chair of the Standing Committee’s commission on National Concerns.

Presently,  Gene, along with other devoted members of the parish, is involved in establishing THE KRISTER STENDAHL LECTURES. Professor Stendahl and his wife Brita were members of the parish and Brita continues to be instrumental in encouraging and teaching the rest of us how to find the tools needed to articulate and share our faith. This year’s inaugural speaker was James Carroll; our 2012 speaker will be Diana Eck.

Having been born in Minnesota and raised in North Dakota, just south of Bismarck, Deanna attended the University of North Dakota, but finished her degree in Mathematics at U. Mass., Boston.
In 1994 she accepted a one year appointment to teach Math at Nantucket High School “on a lark- and for the fun of being on Nantucket for a year”. Well she fell in love with nantucket and is still here! She taught high school math here for 10 years, during which time she commuted to Boston to complete her M.Ed. Deanna met her husband, Rich, in Boston before coming to the island. Then a mutual fund accountant in Boston he followed her to Nantucket and became a plumbing contractor. After 18 years on Nantucket, they are delighted to be raising their 2 children here….while enjoying the beach, biking, gardening and sailing.