Anderson, Neville Ramsay

Born at Mount Corbet, Buttevant, County Cork, Ireland in 1898, Monsignor Anderson was educated at Churchtown, Cork, and in Hamilton, ON. He graduated from St. Michael's College, Toronto, and studied Theology at St. Augustine's Seminary, Toronto. He was ordained for the Diocese of Calgary by Bishop Kidd at St. Augustine's Seminary in August 1925.

Fr. Anderson was appointed Secretary to the Bishop on his arrival in Calgary and was Secretary for eight years while serving St. Angela's Chapel until April 1929, when the Redemptorists came to Calgary. He was appointed Chancellor in 1930 at the same time that he was appointed to the Bishop's Council. In 1933 he was named pastor of Taber and its missions.

In 1934 he was appointed pastor of Drumheller and missions. During his 12 years there he built churches at Drumheller and Munson and by renovating disused school buildings at small expense and with volunteer help and with the help of the Catholic Church Extension Society he provided churches at East Coulee, Dorothy, Rosedale, and Nacmine.

In 1946 Fr. Anderson was appointed pastor at St. Joseph's, Calgary on the death of Fr. Fergus O'Brien where he remained for 21 years during the extraordinary growth of the North Hill in Calgary when nine new churches were built and eight parishes divided from the original St. Joseph's parish while it still remained the largest parish in the Diocese. In 1939 Fr. Anderson was appointed Dean of Drumheller. He was named Pro-Synodal Judge of the Diocesan Court in 1950, and was appointed Domestic Prelate to the Pope in 1957. In 1960 he was made Dean of North Calgary. Monsignor Anderson was named Vicar General in January 1963 and was appointed to the Council of Administration.

On the death of Bishop Carroll in 1967 Anderson was elected Vicar Capitular by unanimous vote on the first ballot, and served until the installation of Bishop Klein. He was re-appointed Vicar General by Klein and became pastor of St. Anthony's, Calgary in July 1967. He was pastor of Canmore and missions during the winter of 1968-9 and pastor of St. Patrick's, Midnapore until Sept 1970. He was appointed Director of the Priests' Centre in Sept 1970 and Director of Diocese Archives in 1971. He died on October 8, 1988.

Created 2018-10-18; Revised 2021-04-01

From the Buffalo to the Cross: a History of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Calgary, M.B. Venini Byrne (Calgary, AB: Calgary Archives and Historical Publishers, 1973)