He was the father of Rika Furude.

He was the head of the Furude family and was in charge of the Saiguden. While he loved his daughter very deeply, he had no qualms about punishing her via spanking after he mistakenly thought that she broke a section of Oyashiro-sama's staue (though it was really Satoko). During the dam war, Mr. Furude took a neutral position on the matter and refused to take either side, which earned some animosity from some of the villagers. Though Shion thought that the priest acted mature for not taking any sides, Mion felt that he was responsible for causing even more unrest in Hinamizawa and that he should have gone along with the protesters in order to keep the village united.

Takano wanted to use Rika as a test subject to further the research of the Hinamizawa syndrome (because it is passed down through the females of the family, such as Mrs. Furude, though exact the exact details remain unclear). Her parents refused to have their daughter used like that, so Takano had the Yamainu drug Mr. Furude so it would look like he died of an unknown disease.

(Source: Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni Wiki)