Father Tom of the Arctic

Description edited from the book back cover: Any history of Alaska would not be complete without taking into account the work of the missionaries who brought Christianity to the Native peoples. Over a decade Father Louis L. Renner compiled the history of the Catholic missionary work in Alaska in a series of publications about special contributions made by Jesuit priests. This one is about Father Thomas Patrick Cunningham. Cunningham was deeply attached to his Eskimo parishioners, and involved in their lives to the extent of learning the Eskimo language. He had many non-Catholic friends and acquaintances. He was just about the best advertisement that could be had for Catholicism. Cunningham was a world traveler and the most far-roaming northern missionary of his time. He served as a chaplain both in the U.S. Army and in the U.S. Air Force. Cunningham played his religious and secular roles with equal ease; but, despite his wide-ranging activites and his national acclaim, he never forgot his primary vocation - that of a priest.