James Groppi - Later Years and Death

Later Years and Death

Groppi's ecclesiastical superiors did not always approve of his activities and transferred him to St. Michael's Church in 1970. He then gradually became disenchanted with the priesthood, leaving it in 1976 to marry Dr. Margaret Rozga, later an English professor at the University of Wisconsin–Waukesha, with whom he had three children.

From 1975 to 1976, Groppi worked for the Tri-County Voluntary Service Committee, where he was responsible for recruiting and supervising VISTA volunteers in Racine, Kenosha and Walworth counties. He rose again to public attention when he joined Marlon Brando to mediate the clash between the Menominee Indians and the Alexian Brothers at the Alexian Monastery in Gresham, Wisconsin, in 1975.

Groppi attended the Virginia Theological Seminary (Episcopal) in Alexandria, Virginia, during the fall of 1978. In January 1979, he continued preparations for the Episcopal priesthood by working for St. Andrews Church, an inner-city parish in Detroit, Michigan. However, his lifelong commitment to Roman Catholicism caused him to question whether it was spiritually possible for him to continue conversion to the Episcopal priesthood, and he aborted that pursuit later that year.

In late 1979, Groppi became a bus driver for the Milwaukee County Transit System—-a job he had held in the 1950s to help put himself through seminary—-and remained in that capacity until he died of brain cancer in 1985.

Groppi is buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Milwaukee. His papers are maintained at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. In a National Geographic interview of Groppi by Louise Levathes, he is described as having been "stripped of his parish."