This is a photograph of Father Dempsey washing clothes in a wooden wash basin and a wash board. Born in New York, Fr. Dempsey came to Maryknoll in 1919 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1929. The same year he was assigned to the Wuchow mission in South China and became the temporary Society Superior of the mission in 1936. During the war years he was named the superior of Chungking and was awarded an Emblem for Meritorious Civilian Service by the US Military Ordinariate in 1945. He fled to Hong Kong in 1951 and returned again to work with refugees in 1953. As late as 1972, Fr. Dempsey worked as a chaplain to young workers at the Caritas Center in Ngau Tau Kok in Hong Kong.
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