Father Thomas P. Taton, a retired diocesan priest, died Sept. 23, 2016, in Kenmore Mercy Hospital. He was 80 years of age.

He was born Oct. 25, 1935, in Buffalo, to Theodore and Julie (Kozbial) Taton. After graduating from St. Joseph's Collegiate Institute in Kenmore, he received a bachelor's degree from Niagara University and a master's degree in education from Canisius College in Buffalo. To prepare for the priesthood, he took courses at Propagation of the Faith Seminary in Rome, Italy, where he was ordained in 1960.

Father Taton's first assignment was with a missionary apostolate of the Newman Club at Alfred University in 1961. The following year, he became an assistant at St. Stanislaus Parish in Buffalo.

In 1964, he began serving as an assistant at St. John Parish in Jamestown, also serving in missionary work in Bolivia, where he lived from 1964-66.

After returning to the United States, Father Taton was assigned to All Saints Parish in Buffalo in 1967, during which he taught at Bishop Turner High School, also in Buffalo, and was a weekend assistant at Resurrection Parish in Cheektowaga. In 1973, he began serving at St. Josaphat in Cheektowaga and, in the following year, at St. John Kanty in Buffalo. In 1974, he became chaplain of Attica Correctional Facility.

In 1979, Father Taton began serving as an assistant at Our Mother of Good Counsel Parish in Blasdell, and in the following year, he became a professor at Cardinal O'Hara High School in Tonawanda, during which he took up residency at St. Gregory the Great Parish in Williamsville.

Father Taton became pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Medina in 1985, where he remained until 1990, when he resigned to care for his ailing mother. In 1996, he became temporary administrator of Queen of All Saints in Lackawanna, and in 1998, he became a chaplain of Millard Fillmore Hospital at Gates Circle in Buffalo, during which he lived at Assumption Parish in Buffalo. He retired in 2010.

Father Taton is survived by a nephew, William Kessler.

A memorial Mass will be celebrated at a later date.