By Chris Mayhew
The Cincinnati Enquirer

FORT THOMAS - The Rev. Canon David E. Heil, serving during World War II, made a promise to God that if he survived an English Channel storm, he would become a priest.

The Rev. Mr. Heil, the pastor of St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Fort Thomas for 15 years ending in the early 1980s, died Monday at St. Luke Hospital in Fort Thomas. He was 79.

"'God,' I proposed, 'if you save me from this storm I will become a priest.' No half-way stuff for me," the Rev. Mr. Heil, a Navy veteran, wrote in But Now I See (Memoirs of a Stubborn Soul).

Before he entered the Episcopal Theological Seminary for Kentucky in Lexington in 1958, he was a reporter for several newspapers in West Virginia, Florida and Kentucky.

The Rev. Mr. Heil, born in Bellaire, Ohio, graduated from seminary in 1961 and served in positions in dioceses in Kentucky, West Virginia and Georgia.

In 42 years of ministry, he touched many lives, said his son, Dave Heil of Cameron, W.Va.

"He touched those lives, but I don't think all those people knew how much they touched him and were part of his being," his son said.

For several years, he put his newspaper abilities to use as the associate editor of the Diocese of Lexington newspaper The Advocate, said his son.

During his career as a journalist, The Rev. Mr. Heil worked at two West Virginia newspapers, and also for the Lexington Herald-Leader, Miami Herald and the Palm Beach Post-Times.

The current rector of St. Andrew's, the Rev. Dr. Ronald Summers, said the Rev. Mr. Heil liked to share stories, and was especially fond of children.

"He was a man noted for his humor and joviality," said Summers.

Other survivors include his wife, Theresa "Terry" Heil of Fort Thomas; a daughter, Marti Heil-Carney of Los Angeles; and five grandchildren.

Visitation will be from 3 to 5 p.m. Sunday at A.C. Dobbling & Son Funeral Home, 106 S. Fort Thomas Ave., Fort Thomas. A service will be held at 11 a.m. Monday at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Fort Thomas. Burial will be in Evergreen Cemetery in Southgate.

Memorials: St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, 3 Chalfonte Place, Fort Thomas, KY 41075.

E-mail cmayhew@enquirer.com