John Eaton, OFM, was born in Ashland, WI, in 1951; was professed as a Francsican friar in 1977; and was ordained to the priesthood in 1978. He has served in parochial and educational ministries in northern Louisiana, Chicago, southeast Arkansas, northern Wisconsin, Nashville (TN), and Teutopolis (IL). Those congregations included African American, Native American, African, Mexican, and Anglo parishioners. Before being elected to serve as the Provincial Vicar, he served 18 months as the director of the Development Office for Sacred Heart Province based in St. Louis, Missouri.