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Father August J. Kita, S.D.B., who did retreat and seminary work in the archdiocese, died June 12 at Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern. He was 76 and had resided since 2003 at Northern Riverview Nursing Home in Haverstraw.
He served at Don Bosco Retreat House in Haverstraw, 1995-1997 and 1988-1992. Previously he was director of Salesian Junior Seminary in Goshen, 1967-1972.
He also was a pastor in Alabama and director of the Salesian community there. He taught and directed religious activities at schools in Louisiana and Florida; directed a novitiate and did retreat work in Massachusetts; and coordinated the Salesian Cooperators, lay persons who follow Salesian spirituality and assist young people.
He retired for health reasons in 1997.
He entered the Salesian novitiate in Newton, N.J., in 1949 and professed first vows in 1950. He studied at Don Bosco College in Newton and at the Salesian Theological School in Aptos, Calif., where he was ordained in 1960. He held a licentiate from what is now the Salesian Pontifical University in Rome and a master’s degree in education from Seton Hall University.
He is survived by two sisters, Eleanor Kita and Rose Ormsby.
A Funeral Mass was offered June 16 in the chapel at the Marian Shrine in Stony Point. Burial was in the Salesian Cemetery in Goshen.
