Father Dyer was born April 10, 1963, in Buffalo, N.Y., to Richard and Justine Dyer. As one of four children in a military family, he spent his childhood moving around the country and to Germany. He attended the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, where he studied electrical engineering and was in the Air Force ROTC. He graduated in 1985, was commissioned into the Air Force and stationed at Wright Patterson in Dayton, Ohio, for four years.
After completing his time in the Air Force, Dyer worked for several years at a defense contracting firm before re-turning to Notre Dame in 1991 to earn a master’s in business. In 1993, he moved to Virginia and began work for a power company. Listening to homilies by Father Jerome Fasano, then pastor of St. Andrew Church in Clifton, invigorated his faith life and helped him discern a calling to the priesthood.
Father Dyer entered Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Md., in 2006. He was ordained to the priesthood Dec 27, 2011, at St. Andrew. The ordination was celebrated early so that his dying father could attend — “a tremendous grace,” he said. His father died the next day as he was celebrating his first Mass of thanksgiving.
Father Dyer has served as parochial vicar of Blessed Sacrament Church in Alexandria (2012-16), St. Charles Borromeo Church in Arlington (2016-19) and St. Veronica Church in Chantilly since 2019.
Father Dyer said he is grateful for his time at St. Veronica. Though the pandemic was difficult, it was also a time of growth both for him and many parishioners. “It really is a beautiful community,” he said.
He’s humbled and excited to meet his new parish. “I pray that I cooperate with (God’s) grace and that the people of Reston, the people of St. Thomas à Becket and I can glorify God in this new home of mine,” he said. Throughout his priesthood, the verse 1 John 4:18, “Perfect love casts out all fear,” has greatly helped him. But recently, he’s found himself meditating on the verses of 1 Corinthians 13, the passage that starts, “Love is patient, love is kind.”
“It’s the voice I’m trying to project to the people of God that he loves so much,” Father Dyer said.