Rev. Richard J. Kozak, a retired archdiocesan priest who served as pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Homewood, now St. John Neumann Parish, died April 15, 2026. He was 85.
Rev. Kozak was born Aug. 29, 1941, in Chicago. He attended Quigley Preparatory Seminary in Chicago and the University of St. Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary in Mundelein. He was ordained to the priesthood on April 27, 1967, by Most Rev. John Cody and celebrated his first solemn Mass on May 7, 1967, at Holy Rosary Parish in Chicago.
After ordination, Rev. Kozak served as assistant pastor at St. Felicitas Parish in Chicago and as associate pastor at St. Simeon Parish in Bellwood, St. Maria Goretti Parish in Schiller Park and Sacred Heart Parish in Melrose Park. He served nearly 17 years at St. Joseph Parish before retiring in 2015.
In a 2012 interview with the Chicago Catholic, the archdiocesan newspaper, Rev. Kozak discussed losing sight in one eye a month before his ordination on March 19, 1967. “I’m convinced it deepened my spiritual vision of the Lord even though I lost physical vision,” he said.
Lying in state will take place Thursday, April 23, from 3 to 7 p.m. and Friday, April 24, from 9 to 10:30 a.m. at Sacred Heart Church, 304 N. Ohio St., Wanatah, Indiana.
A funeral Mass will be celebrated Friday, April 24, at 10:30 a.m. at Sacred Heart Church by Most Rev. Joseph N. Perry, auxiliary bishop emeritus of Chicago.