Alfred Boeddeker

Alfred Boeddeker, O.F.M. (August 7, 1903 as Anthony Boeddeker — January 1, 1994) was an American Franciscan friar who is best known for having founded humanitarian programs to aid the poor and marginalised in the San Francisco Bay Area. These programs, named by Father Boeddeker for Saint Anthony of Padua, include the St. Anthony Dining Room, the St. Anthony Free Medical Clinic (1956), and the St. Anthony Farm, near Petaluma in Sonoma County, California. The dining room and medical clinic are part of the St. Anthony Foundation.

Biography Anthony Boeddeker was born in San Francisco, California. At the age of 10, he entered the Franciscan seminary in Santa Barbara; he took his vows in 1921 as brother Alfred and was ordained a priest in 1927. He studied theology at the Santa Barbara Seminary and pastored at the St. Rafael Church in Goleta, California. From 1930 to 1933 he studied in Rome, Italy. After his return from Rome, he taught for fifteen years at the Franciscan School of Theology at the Mission Santa Barbara.

Boeddeker Park in the Tenderloin district is named after him.