Father Hilary Donald Thimmesh, OSB

Monk of Saint John's Abbey
Collegeville, Minnesota

Born: March 2, 1928

Professed: July 11, 1948

Ordained: June 5, 1954

Died: August 11, 2019

Donald Merlin Thimmesh was the oldest of seven children born to Theodore Pierre and Frances Esther (Schmidtke) Thimmesh in Osakis, Minnesota, on March 2, 1928. Donald attended a rural elementary school near Osakis from 1933–41 and graduated from the Osakis High School in 1945. Growing up on a farm, Donald developed an early love for nature's cycles and gifts: "I learned the seasons well, and I gained a great love of the out-of-doors, particularly in the autumn when the harvest of corn and vegetables took the whole family into the fields and the garden."

In 1945 Donald began his undergraduate studies at Saint John's University. In July 1947, he entered the novitiate at Saint John's Abbey and took the name Hilary. The following July 11 he made his simple vows and continued his undergraduate studies, earning a B.A. in philosophy in 1950. Immediately after graduation, he pursued priesthood studies at Saint John's Seminary and completed this program in 1954, with ordination in June of that year. He pursued graduate education in English at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, receiving an M.A. in 1956 and a Ph.D. in 1963.

Although Chaucer became one of Father Hilary's academic specialization, he taught a beloved Shakespeare course, team-taught a course in Irish fiction, and later fell in love with Civil War stories – memoirs, reportage, and other historical studies, that he developed into another course.

Above all, Father Hilary had wide ranging interests and read deeply and broadly. He noted that "a monk is a man with a book" and he fell in love with all kinds of literature and had a broad and deep interest in most everything of the mind and heart and nature. Father Hilary, always the monk, identified himself professionally first and foremost as a faculty member—he always considered teaching an eminently monastic work.

Father Hilary began his teaching career in English after his ordination to the priesthood during the years 1954 and 1955 at Saint John's Preparatory School. These were also the years he began his long service to Saint John's University as a faculty resident, first in Saint Benet Hall (1954–55) and then in Saint Anselm Hall (1956–61), and finally in Saint Thomas Hall (1963–2019). Father Hilary enjoyed living and working with students and remained a faculty resident even as a nonagenarian on a first-year floor in Saint Thomas Hall until his retirement in 2019. These last seventeen years were spent with first-year students who benefitted from Father Hilary's warm, open approach to them. In particular, he developed a strategy of doing a twenty-minute interview with each student, asking those basic questions that help a person become a part of the place. Generations of Johnnies have been nurtured by his gracious, pastoral presence.

Father Hilary served as director of oblates for Saint John's Abbey from 1954–61. He was appointed the university's assistant academic dean from 1965 through 1967, and then as academic dean from 1967–69. Beginning in 1971, he became director of the Hill Individual Learning Program and continued in this capacity until 1974. He served as chair of the SJU English Department from 1976 through 1978.

From 1978–80 he served as apostolic administrator for Saint Martin's Abbey and chair of the board of Saint Martin's College in Lacey, Washington. Upon his return to Saint John's Abbey in 1980, he was appointed prior for a two-year stint, immediately after which he took over as president of Saint John's University in 1982, a position he held until 1991.

During his presidency, the Auditorium/Music Building was completely renovated at Father Hilary's initiative. The auditorium became the Stephen B. Humphrey Theater. The Gertken Organ Studio and the Choral Rehearsal Room were constructed as additions to the building, and studios, offices, classrooms, and music practice rooms were renovated, enlarged and reconfigured.

He also oversaw the renovation of Simons Hall and construction of the Art Center and the Rogers Gallery. He was a major force in the creation of a new Master Plan for the campus. Finally, he worked with faculty and administrators to forge the first joint core curriculum between CSB and SJU, a transformative curricular move.

Father Hilary loved the outdoors both for its natural beauty and for its opportunities for vigorous physical activity. He once commented that Saint John's was one of those rare places where you could be in a classroom or office all day and, upon exiting, be in the heart of the woodlands within minutes.

In the spring and summer, Father Hilary took great pleasure in cultivating a small flower garden not far from his monastery room. If one happened to pass by while he was at work, he would regale you with the glory of the seasonal blossoms.

Father Hilary's career was crowned with several awards, including a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities for advanced studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1973; an honorary degree from Saint Thomas University, Saint Paul, Minnesota, in 1989; and the title of professor emeritus of English from Saint John's University in 2008.

Father Hilary was named the first director of the Benedictine Institute in 2009. Originally established by Saint John's University Board of Regents in 2008 to honor former president Brother Dietrich Reinhart, OSB, its purpose is to strengthen the Catholic and Benedictine character of Saint John's University. Father Hilary's background and temperament made him a perfect fit.

Father Hilary edited a sesquicentennial volume of Saint John's, entitled Saint John's at 150: A Portrait of This Place Called Collegeville in 2006. Five years later, the Liturgical Press published his Marcel Breuer and a Committee of Twelve Plan a Church: A Monastic Memoir in which he described in vivid detail—thanks in large part to his being the youngest member of that committee in the 1950s—the people and politics surrounding the construction of the abbey church.

Father Hilary died unexpectedly on August 11, 2019, in the retirement center at Saint John's Abbey. He is survived by his brother, Ronald, Monticello, and sisters, Carolyn, Osakis, and Margaret McWilliams, Grand Junction, Colorado, and the community at Saint John's Abbey. The monks, family, and friends will celebrate the Eucharist of Christian Burial for Father Hilary at 3:30 pm on Friday, August 16 in Saint John's Abbey and University Church with interment in Saint John's Cemetery following the service.

We ask each community member to offer two Masses according to the manner of his participation in the priesthood of Christ. We commend our brother Hilary to your prayers.

Abbot John Klassen OSB
and the monks of Saint John's Abbey