Interview

1) What do you think were the most important events in the Church of St. Clement's
history and why?
I think that the most important events were when St. Clement was founded and when St. Clement
started doing missions.
2) Why do you think those events were so important?
Well, in 1870 there were no Non-Roman Catholic Churches in the area. St Clement was made by
Parson Tays, an Episcopal clergyman with two sons and no wife. He had lost his wife and baby
in a horrible flu epidemic, was a decent land surveyor and could also teach and did because the
adobechurch was also a school during the weekdays. The first building that St. Clement was in
was very close to the Rio Grande. He had a bell made in Mexico that he rang for school, the
church, and for emergencies. Tays also built a new church building later in downtown El Paso
when St. Clement started doing mission outreach and continued to when they started doing a
very large amount of missions.
3) Were you alive during these events?
No because I came to St. Clement in July 1972.
4) What do you think was the most important event that happened in St. Clement's history
during your lifetime? (With history being considered as something that happened over 20
years ago)
I really like all of the many missions that St. Clement does.
5) Do you think that St. Clement was influential in El Paso's history and why?
I think that having the first Non-Roman Catholic school in El Paso waspretty influential. I also
think that St. Clement's Parish School was and is influential to El Paso. One of the men who
helps at St. Clement, Rick Milliorn, went to the Parish School until ninth grade.
6) Who do you think was the most important person in St. Clement's history?
I think that the Reverend Uncle Bert was definitely the most important person in St. Clement's
history.
7) How do you think this person influenced St. Clement?
He came to El Paso from England when he was only 17. He started living with his uncle in El
Paso when he finally got there. He also made a baking company, trained to be a pastor, and
worked until he was in his eighties. In the 1940s they decided to build Williams Hall. Many
people in El Paso helped to build it because he was a nice man. He helped the Orthodox people
by letting them worship for ten years because they had nowhere else to worship. He also let the
Jews worship in St. Clement while they built a Jewish temple for themselves to worship in. I met

Uncle Bert by being with the Haddads and starting to go to St. Clement. I met him 10 years
before he passed away.
8) Do you think that the ways St. Clement was founded affected the way it is now and, if so,
how?
Yes because it was founded as a mission church and still is one. St. Clement has started the
churches St. Christopher, St. Lukes, Holy Spirit, St. Albons, All Saints, and St. Francis on the
hill, more commonly known as St. Francis.