Longtime Jamestown chaplain Father John L. Kuhlmann died Dec. 21, 2018. He was 76.

The son of John and Virginia Love Kuhlmann was born Aug. 1, 1942, in Buffalo. He attended St. Paul School in Kenmore and Canisius High School in Buffalo, before entering St. John Vianney Seminary in East Aurora.

Father Kuhlmann was ordained at St. Joseph New Cathedral in Buffalo on May 25, 1968 by Bishop Pius Benincasa. He celebrated his first Mass the next day at St. Mark Parish in Buffalo.

After a couple months in Puerto Rico, he accepted his first assignment as associate pastor of Holy Redeemer Parish in Buffalo. Other assignments included associate pastor of St. Teresa of the Infant Jesus, Niagara Falls beginning February 1970, assistant chaplain of Roswell Park Cancer Institute and Buffalo General Hospital, chaplain of Brooks Memorial Hospital in Dunkirk. In January 1982, Father Kulhmann was named associate pastor of Sacred Heart in Niagara Falls, then associate pastor of St. Mary's in Olean. His first pastorate was at Queen of All Saints Parish in Lackawanna beginning May 1985. In 1989, he took a sabbatical study at the Vatican II Institute in Menlo, Calif. When he returned, he was named pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Bemus Point.

Father Kuhlmann took on additional responsibilities of spiritual director for the Buffalo Cursillo Movement and chaplain of Jamestown General Hospital, Women's Christian Association Hospital and Fenton Nursing Home. In 2000, when he retired from hospital ministry, the parish communities in Jamestown honored him for his 13 years of service as a Catholic chaplain.

He retired in 2006.

Burial took place at Mount Olivet Cemetery Tonawanda.