'A very honorable guy'

Father Jerome Fortenberry’s longstanding dedication to The American Legion and ANAVICUS (Army, Navy and Air Force Veterans in Canada United States Unit) is visible at the local, state and national level. For more than 55 years, he’s provided prayer, delivered sermons and offered spiritual guidance to his fellow Legion and ANAVICUS members as their chaplain.

“Respect is the word you would attach to Father Fortenberry,” said American Legion Past National Commander and ANAVICUS President Jake Comer. “Father Fortenberry has been the man that we’ve always looked up to. He’s a very honorable guy.”

In appreciation of his many years of personal and spiritual leadership, Fortenberry received the honorable ANAVICUS Chaplain Emeritus award and an annual scholarship in his name. The $1,500 scholarship will be granted to direct descendants of ANAVICUS members.

“He has always treated everybody with great respect, so we wanted to do something to leave in his memory and his history,” Comer said.

The award was presented to 89-year-old Fortenberry during a luncheon at his retirement home, the Apostle Charity Residence in Perryville, Mo., on June 30. In attendance were Legion and ANAVICUS members from the Department of Missouri, including Past National Commander and ANAVICUS member Joseph Frank, Department of Missouri Commander George Scarborough, Department of Missouri Adjutant Lowry Finley Jackson, Missouri National Executive Committeeman Charley Goodin, Missouri alternate NECman Ken Goth and past Missouri commander and past NECman Rich Heigert.

“Everyone thinks the world of Father Fortenberry,” said Frank as he presented Fortenberry the award. “He’s given so much not only to ANAVICUS, but to The American Legion.”

Fortenberry grew up in The American Legion. The son of a World War I veteran, he went to a Legion post in South Dakota with his father as a young boy and even joined the Sons of The American Legion. Upon turning 18, Fortenberry enlisted in the U.S. Navy, attended quartermaster school in Philadelphia and served his country during World War II. However, his training as a quartermaster wasn’t needed when he was stationed in the Philippines so he was assigned to a barge to hand out supplies. After leaving the military in 1946, Fortenberry used the GI Bill and went to college at Loyola University in New Orleans for a year. In 1949, he professed his vows and attended seminary at St. Mary’s of the Barrens Church in Perryville.

Fortenberry was ordained a priest in 1955 and four years later he followed in his father’s footsteps and joined The American Legion. While earning a master’s degree from DePaul University in Chicago, he was elected as the Legion’s national chaplain in 1973 at the 55th National Convention in Hawaii; it was the last time the position was an elected one. Fortenberry also served as chaplain for the Department of Missouri, for Missouri’s 13th district and for his post in Perryville, Moonier-Reddick Post 133. As a chaplain for the Legion, he attended post and district meetings, state conferences and national conventions to provide spiritual guidance and deliver sermons on spiritual and American values.

A few of Fortenberry’s apostolic assignments have included serving as a pastor to several churches in Missouri and Illinois, providing ministry at the Illinois Super Max Prison, teaching American government, U.S. history and canon law at St. Mary’s seminary in Perryville, and teaching ministry at Christ the King Seminary in Nyeri, Kenya.

As ANAVICUS chaplain, Fortenberry delivered prayer and sermons at the organization's meetings held during national convention and Washington Conference.

“ANAVICUS is the best thing in the world because it brought together people from different countries that could work together, live together and so forth,” Fortenberry said. “It’s very good.”

ANAVICUS is a unit of ANAVIC – the Canadian veterans organization founded in 1840 – and the U.S. charter was presented in 1953 during the Legion's National Convention in St. Louis where the first ANAVICUS meeting was held. There are 1,200 members in ANAVICUS, and all are American Legion past national commanders and other distinguished Legionnaires. ANAVICUS membership is by invitation only, and new members are inducted twice a year at national convention and Washington Conference.

In addition to the ANAVICUS scholarship in Fortenberry's honor, there are nine other scholarships in memory of prominent ANAVICUS members. Learn more about ANAVICUS here.