The Rev. Richard Leroy Fliss, 78, a Stevens Point native who was a priest for 50 years, died Wednesday, July 20, 2016, in Green Valley, Ariz.

Funeral services will be held at Our Lady of the Valley Parish in Green Valley, Ariz., Tuesday, July 26, 2016.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at Mary, Mother of the Church Parish in La Crosse at 11 a.m. Thursday, July 28, with the Very Rev. William A. Dhein as the main celebrant and Monsignor Matthew Malnar as the homilist.

Visitation will be at the church from 10 a.m. Thursday, July 28, until the Mass.

Visitation will also be held at St. Peter Parish in Stevens
Point from 11 a.m. Friday, July 29, until noon, with a rosary at 11 a.m. Burial
will be in Guardian Angel Cemetery.

Blaschke-Schneider Funeral Home in La Crosse and Pisarski
Funeral Home in Stevens Point assisted the Diocese of La Crosse and the family
with arrangements.

The Rev. Fliss was born June 13, 1938, in Stevens Point, a
son of the late Michael and Anna (Przybylski) Flisakowski. He attended St.
Peter Grade School and P. J. Jacobs High School, both in Stevens Point, St.
Francis Minor Prep Seminary and St. Francis Major Seminary in Milwaukee, and
Holy Cross Seminary in La Crosse.

After he returned to social work, he developed a call to the
priesthood. He was ordained May 28, 1966, at St. Joseph the Workman Cathedral
in La Crosse by Bishop Frederick W. Freking.

The Rev. Fliss’s first assignment was as assistant pastor at
Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in Arcadia June 15, 1966. He was appointed assistant
pastor at St. Mark Parish in Rothschild June 15, 1967; and at St. Vincent de
Paul Parish in Wisconsin Rapids Dec. 15, 1969.

He was appointed as associate pastor at St. Mary Parish in
Wausau in 1971 and then as temporary administrator of the parish in 1975.

He was appointed as pastor of Holy Rosary Parish in Owen Jan.
1, 1976. He was then appointed pastor of St. Thomas More Parish in La Crosse in
1989, where he served until 1997. In 1998 he began service as a chaplain to the
Federal Detention Center in Miami, Fla.

On March 5, 2006, he was promoted to department head of the
Religious Services Department at the Federal Prison Complex in Tucson, Arizona.
He served in this position until he was granted the status of senior priest on
July 1, 2008.

Survivors include two brothers, Stanley (Clara) Flink and
Clarence Flisakowski; and one sister, Grace (Barny)
Kaminski.

He was also preceded in death by two brothers, Emil Flisakowski
and Chester Flisakowski; and one sister, Evelyn Pascavic.