A Lone Star State native, he was born near the Big D. He is one of the eight children of Roy and Elizabeth Heyne of Colleyville, Texas. He and his wife, Nancy (Hernadez) Heyne, are parents of two sons, and they currently call St. Mary of the Assumption, Brookline, their home parish.

His middle and secondary education was at Cistercian Preparatory School in Irving, Texas. He has a bachelor of arts in history and a bachelor of science in biology, both from the University of Dallas in Dallas, Texas.

He has a master’s degree in theology from Oxford University, Oxford, England. He and his wife are both medical doctors, and the new deacon has his medical degree from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, Dallas, and is in practice at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston.

During his formation program, he served in the chaplaincy at MGH and at Cambridge Health Alliance, Cambridge.