Father O. Hugh Stout, 85, a priest of the Diocese of Camden for over 50 years, died May 2 at St. Mary’s Catholic Home in Cherry Hill.
Born in Philadelphia, he attended West Catholic High School for Boys, before beginning his religious education at Saint Michael’s Seminary in Conesus, N.Y.
He later attended Saint Mary’s Mission Seminary, Techny, Ill., and Saint Joseph’s Mission House in Bordentown, N.J., for the Divine Word Missionaries. He then transferred to the Diocese of Camden and completed his theological studies at Darlington Seminary in the Archdiocese of Newark, N.J., before being ordained on May 27, 1961, at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Camden by Archbishop Celestine J. Damiano.
Father Stout was awarded a bachelor’s degree in English from Saint Joseph’s University, a master’s degree in sociology from Villanova University and a doctorate in urban planning from the University of Toledo.
He began his career in education by teaching English at Camden Catholic High School in 1962, and was appointed vice-principal there in 1966.
Father Stout served as parochial vicar at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception; Saint Monica in Atlantic City; Holy Rosary in Cherry Hill; and Sacred Heart in Camden. While at Sacred Heart, Father Stout also served in prison ministry. He taught English and also served as campus minister at Xavier University in New Orleans in the 1970s, then at Morgan State University in Baltimore in the 1980s, returning to Xavier in the 1990s as the chairman of the Department of Sociology.
He retired in 2002, but he continued to lecture until 2007.
He is survived by his sister Harriett King of Philadelphia, his sister-in-law of Josephine Stout of Scottsdale, Ariz., his nieces Rita Stout, Gina Stout, Nora Stout and Alexis Armstrong and nephew Vincent (Mary) Stout. Father Stout is pre-deceased by his parents, Alexander and Martha, and by his brother Alexander, Jr.
A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated May 9 at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. Interment took place at Calvary Cemetery, Cherry Hill.