Tony received his BA in Philosophy from Sacred Heart Seminary in Detroit, Wayne County Michigan in 1954. He received his permanent teaching certificate from the State of Michigan State Board of Education in Lansing, Michigan in 1967. He received his MA in English Literature from the University of Detroit, Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan. He received the degree of Master of Divinity from St. John's Provincial Seminary in Plymouth, Wayne County, Michigan in 1984. He received his Doctor of Ministry degree from the Graduate Theological Foundation in Notre Dame, Indiana in 1989.

From The Detroit Free Press, Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan, published in the Metro Final on June 11, 2001:

"JOHN ANTHONY LOMBARDINI: PRIEST, PASTOR AND FRIEND

He was known to a generation of students and parishioners as Father Anthony, and to a generation before that as Father John.

The Rev. John Anthony Lombardini began his religious career as a Catholic but ended it as associate pastor of Troy's St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church, having left the Catholic church to marry.

The Rev. Lombardini died Friday after a nine-month illness, at Heartland Healthcare -- Georgian Bloomfield nursing home in Bloomfield Hills. He was 68.

The Rev. Lombardini was born in Detroit in 1933 and grew up wanting to be a priest, said his brother, Charles Lombardini of Shelby Township.

As toddlers, the boys lost their father in an auto accident caused by a drunken driver, Charles Lombardini recalled.

The inspiration of parochial school led the younger boy to think of becoming a priest, said their mother, Bertha Rose, 95, of Madison Heights.

"I don't think I raised an angel, but he was a good, thoughtful kid. I miss him," she said.

Following custom, John Lombardini entered Sacred Heart Seminary in Detroit in 1946 as an eighth-grader. Ordained in 1958, he taught at the school through the 1960s. Later, he taught ethics and English at the University of Detroit Mercy.

But in 1978, he left the Catholic priesthood after meeting his future wife Patricia, a former nun and gifted organist, family members said. The two were married that year.

For a time, the former priest worked as a Radio Shack store salesman and took other nonreligious jobs, said his cousin, Ken Stockman of White Lake Township.

Ultimately, he felt a need to return to church work. After more training, he was received into the Antiochian Orthodox church in 1986. In Antiochian church tradition, priests can be married before ordination.

He began working at St. George Antiochian Church, which for 78 years was in Detroit. Father Anthony, as he came to be called, helped in the church's move to Troy in 1993 and served as associate pastor since then, said Father Joseph Antypas, pastor of St. George.

"He was very instrumental in the life of our community and a very, very dear friend," the pastor said.

The Rev. Lombardini received his doctor of ministry degree from Notre Dame University in 1989. His wife died in 1997; they had no children.

Visitation will be from noon to 9 p.m. today at St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church, 2160 E. Maple, Troy.

The funeral will be at 11 a.m. Tuesday at the church. Burial will follow at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Southfield."