Meet a Volunteer

The State of Minnesota leads the nation with the highest percentage of adults 65 and older who reported volunteering in the past year, at nearly 40% according to the Corporation for National and Community Service.

In the calendar year 2018 about 90 volunteers contributed 7,200 hours of their time and talent serving a variety of important needs in the abbey including 1,799 hours in the abbey retirement center, 1,726 abbey woodworking shop, 1,040 abbey gift shop, 763 sewing and quilting, 474 vegetable gardens, 463 abbey scola, 417 oblate office, 270 drivers, 246 abbey archives, 120 abbey crafts, 110 yoga and tai chi leaders, and 67 bulk mailing. 

Meet Abbey Volunteer: David Morreim

Dave Morreim grew up with his sister, Lucy, in Saint Cloud where he lived his entire life. His father, Robert, worked for the first radio station in town, KFAM, and in advertising and merchandizing at Herberger’s. His mother, Patricia, was an elementary school teacher and active in Campfire Girls.

After graduating from Technical High School, Dave followed in the footsteps of his three uncles, Patrick, John, and Parker Pattison, who graduated from Saint John’s. Dave received his B.A. in 1975, majoring in sociology. In his freshman year Dave spent his January term working in the greenhouse under the watchful eye of Father Gunther Rolfson, OSB, who taught botany and deepened Dave’s interest in plants.

That relationship grew into a lasting friendship at Saint John’s and beyond. The two made six trips throughout Europe, including the years when Father Gunther was the on-site coordinator of the HMML microfilming team, tracking the Benedictine heritage and enjoying especially German, Austrian, and Italian cuisine and culture.

Dave was restless in settling into a career, teasing his curiosity in law school at Hamline University and checking out the University of Minnesota Agriculture School. Wondrously, he was able to juggle a number of commitments concurrently. After receiving his teaching certificate, he taught at Saints Peter and Paul Middle School while also creating Pattison Farm on the outskirts of Waite Park where he built a nursery and a produce garden for vegetables that he contributed to the Saint Cloud Food Shelf since 2007. This priority mission continues to the present. In 2015 Dave received the Good Samaritan Award from the Saint Cloud Catholic Diocese for his generous extraordinary public service.

Dave accepted the position with the Saint Cloud Parks Department in 1983 as manager of the Munsinger Gardens that had fallen into abandon on the banks of the Mississippi River. This commitment of some seventeen years until 2000 was an enormous challenge overseeing, with the help of a staff that grew to

thirty-two gardeners, the development and care of the grounds.

In 1988 the Munsinger Gardens work caught the attention of a neighbor, Mr. Bill Clemens, who invited Dave to develop a rose garden on an empty lot he purchased that was across the street from his home. This project grew over the next ten years under Dave’s supervision and with Mr. Clemens’ incredibly enormous support of some $5,500,000 for building contiguous successive gardens to the south and endowing them. The completed initiative of three city blocks attracted national attention and became known as the William and Virginia Clemens Gardens, which were donated to the city of Saint Cloud.

For the next sixteen years through 2016, Dave tutored residents of the Saint Cloud Children’s home, a commitment that developed into creating a flower and vegetable garden for their learning and enjoying the care and maintenance of the plants.

Currently, Dave continues to focus on Pattison Farm growing bedding plants and perennials and supporting annually the food shelf project with fresh vegetables.

Saint John’s Abbey is very grateful to Dave for his generous contribution of flowering plants over the years in many abbey gardens, and especially for the tuberous begonias and other flowers in hanging baskets on the balcony of the Abbey’s Health and Retirement Center for the residents, staff and guests to enjoy.

Meet Abbey Volunteer: Brother Walter Kieffer, OSB

Brother Walter made his first vows as a Benedictine monk of Saint John’s Abbey on 11 July 1966. He was born twenty years earlier in Bird Island, Minnesota, and grew up with his parents, Bernard and Mary (Coufal) Kieffer, two brothers and two sisters. His early schooling was in Stewart, Litchfield, and four years at Saint John’s Prep School, where he graduated in 1964.

As a young monk Brother Walter made his mark in various significant responsibilities, joining Brother Otto Thole in the plumbing shop and learning from master plumbers, Brother Edward Zwak and Brother Victor McMahon, while upgrading the plumbing on campus. Over the years that job evolved into energy-management and mechanical systems (plumbing and heating), and the emerging waste-water treatment facility. He also served as assistant fire chief and chief for twenty-four years. During this time Brother Walter became nationally certified as an EMT responder.

Brother Walter’s knowledge and experience suited him well in the late 1980s and beyond in accepting an assignment to retool the plumbing first in the Saint John’s Japanese mission priory in Tokyo and then at the Benedictine Abbey of San Anselmo in Rome. Returning to Saint John’s in the mid-1990s, Brother Walter was assigned as a Faculty Resident in Benet Hall. He also became the first safety officer of the corporation, a period of implementing the complex Osha standards.

At the turn of the century Brother Walter entered the seminary and was ordained a deacon in 2004. His pastoral ministry continues to today in the abbey as well as in regional parishes.

Through this winding path of key institutional duties, among Brother Walter’s most satisfying work is in processing maple syrup, a commitment that goes back to 1962 as a sophomore in the Prep School. What used to be done every other year, now is a yearly saga sometimes with as many as 3,000 taps in the abbey arboretum.

Brother Walter works with volunteers to collect about forty gallons of sap to produce one gallon of syrup. The highest yield was in 1968 with 588 gallons of syrup. Currently on average about twelve hundred spiles produce some 300 gallons of syrup. It takes a lot of wood to stoke the evaporator, another big job with about two dozen volunteers who cord, split, and stack wood both for the evaporator and campus fireplaces.

Students and monks appreciate Brother Walter’s fishing stories, processing zesty horse radish, and perhaps especially his apple crisp and apple sauce mostly made from bushels of windfalls in the shrinking apple orchard. He can tell a good mushroom from a bad one most of the time. Brother Walter also enjoys cross-stitching and he challenges himself nearly every day with Sudoku and KenKen. He is an active member of a monthly Prep School book club in memory of classmate, Steven Engles.

We are grateful for Brother Walter’s tireless energy, skill, and commitment over many years as a monk making our beautiful place better, safer, and cleaner both through his professional responsibilities over the years and as an abbey volunteer supervisor.

Meet Abbey Volunteers: Jane and Bob Simon

At times, perhaps even more so in the past, neighbors grow up together and are shaped by a welcoming community of life-long relationships. This may certainly be true of Jane (Pflueger) and Bob Simon.  Jane’s father, Robert Pflueger, was a Saint John’s campus drayman and her mother, Louise (Philipi) worked as a seamstress and did the laundry mostly for the seminarians and also monks.  

Jane, the fourth child, grew up with her three sisters and four brothers in their home on the Saint John’s campus just south of the cemetery and apple orchard a half block or so from the Saint John’s Elementary School that all the children attended for eight years. When Jane was a first grader in 1948, Franciscan Sisters from Hankinson, North Dakota, were the teachers, including Sr Linnea, Sr Fidelis and Sr Bonaventure. There were about a dozen first graders with Jane.  The Saint John parish pastors, Fr Rembert Bularzik OSB, and Fr Lancelot Atsch OSB, were frequent visitors to the classrooms and taught religion.  

Close neighbors of the Pflueger’s, just a stone’s throw east across the road, lived the three Huschle women, Marie, Catherine, and Mollie, who sewed a lot of Benedictine habits and did the mending and patching for the monks over many years.  That house is now occupied by University students.  However, the Pflueger house and garage as well as the grade school no longer exist.

Following elementary school Jane enrolled in Saint Cloud’s Technical High School and graduated in 1960.  She rode the campus bus driven by Ben Hiltner, sometimes waiting in the “Porter’s” office under the watchful eye of the porter, Ted Schriner,  who also manned the switchboard.  Jane’s first job after graduation for about six months was in Saint Cloud’s Visionese Eye Glass, where she polished and assembled lenses.  She then was a receptionist and processed orders for seven years in the Saint John’s Liturgical Press, thanks to Fr William Heidt OSB.  From 1968 through her retirement in 2006, Jane was hired by Bob Scheetz in the University registrar’s office (with a year in the alumni office), for a total of forty-five years employed at Saint John’s.

Just a few miles to the East Robert Simon grew up on a farm southwest of Saint Joseph off County Road 2. His parents, Bernard and Viola (Hansen) Simon, raised five children, two girls and three boys, all of whom attended a one-room country grade school near their home, and Saint Cloud Technical. Bob then enlisted in the Air Force for four years and served in Viet Nam.  Returning home he enrolled in the Saint Cloud Technical Community College on the GI Bill and was employed part time at Norwest Bank, Saint Cloud, that later became Wells Fargo where he worked until his retirement in 2005. 

Jane and Bob met while playing softball on the Saint John’s Seminary softball field in the summer of 1967.  Two years later they were married in the Abbey Church.  They bought two and a half acres of land from Joe and Katie Krammer a couple of miles from Saint John’s, and in 1969 they moved into their new house that was originally designed by Br Placid Stuckenschneider OSB (with changes over the years).  They enjoy the outdoors and vegetable and flower gardening at home and traveling, especially visiting scenic America.

The Simons have two children, Jennifer who graduated from the College of Saint Benedict, and Chad, who attended a two year college.  They have six grandchildren whom they enjoy very much.

Jane and Bob are Abbey Volunteers for about twelve years, helping with the bulk mailing of the Abbey Banner, working as an attendant in the Abbey Gift Shop and cataloging the artwork of Fr Jerome Tupa OSB.  We are very grateful to these volunteers for their generous service over the years.

Meet Abbey Volunteers:  Dorothy and Hal Roske

To learn more about this couple, who today live a few blocks up the road from where the Collegeville train station was built in 1879, is to delve wondrously into the early history of Saint John’s. Harold, an only child known as Hal, grew up in Flynntown, the housing neighborhood built for Saint John’s employees named after Coach Ed Flynn, who moved into the first house in 1914. Hal, born in 1929, lived with his parents, Joseph and Martha, in the house first constructed for George and Isabelle Durenberger. The neighborhood included such familiar names as Ted and Helen Schreiner, abbey porter’s office and switchboard; Ben and Alma Hiltner, bus driver; Carl and Ella Sauer and George and Theresa Klein, abbey farm; Ed and Margaret Douvier, power plant; Ed Klein, gym manager; Martin and Della Hiltner, milk pasteurizer and Liturgical Press; Bill and Regina Hiltner, laundry; and others.

Hal’s father, an electrician by trade, was employed in the power house and became its chief engineer during his work span of forty-five years from 1923 to 1968 when he died suddenly of heart failure. He oversaw the campus-wide conversion of power from DC to AC current by the Keane Electric Company, Saint Paul, from 1943 to 1947, a complex procedure that included as many as thirty-five electricians on campus.

(It might be noted that during these early days, the Saint John’s telephone system included the employees living in Flynntown as well as the four families on the Saint John’s property north of Interstate 94 up to the Collegeville Station at the railroad tracks: Joe and Jody O’Connell, Joe and Marie Seitz, George and Theresia Reischl, and Emerson and Arleen Hynes. The original Saint John’s Post Office was moved in 1955 from the Collegeville Station to the first floor Quadrangle near the entrance to the student dining room, then in 1967 to first floor Wimmer Hall, and finally in 1986 to Guild Hall.)

Hal attended the Saint John’s parochial elementary school built in 1925 just south of the cemetery (which closed in 1967 and was razed in 1975). For his first year of high school he attended Saint John’s Preparatory with his classmate, Fr Wilfred Theisen OSB, prior to receiving his high school diploma at Saint Cloud Tech in 1947. As a youngster, Hal walked nearly a mile to and from the grade school and later the Prep School, which was then on the first floor Quadrangle called Saint Gregory Hall.

Hal learned basic electric technology through correspondence courses and on-site training with his father, and he worked as an electrician and in the power plant from 1947 through 1951, when he joined the army for two years before making the Saint John’s Electric Shop his life’s work until his retirement in 1991. 

Hal was into baseball big-time and was a highly respected catcher for several local teams before, during, and after his army service. But a baseball career-ending broken leg abruptly stopped that in 1955. He was also a scout master for numerous local youths from 1957-1967.

In the meantime, however, it was Hal’s good fortune to meet Dorothy Rennie from rural Saint Joseph, the youngest of eight children of Joseph and Bertha (Stock). A graduate of the Saint Joseph Catholic elementary school and Cathedral high school, Dorothy worked as a typist for the Saint Cloud Daily Times. They met at the Coliseum Dance Hall in Waite Park and were married in the Saint Joseph Catholic Church on June 28, 1951 while Hal was on an army furlough. That decision landed them both in Alabama for the duration of Hal’s military commitment.

Dorothy’s additional jobs included working in the Saint John’s Mary Hall Snack Bar with Ida Johnson, a cataloger in the Alcuin Library with Fr Benjamin Stein OSB, the Saint John’s Prep library, and the Apollo High School library until her retirement in 1991. Dorothy is a bird watcher and a walker. She loves to bake, crochet, and enjoys a good book.

During this time their family grew to include six children: Sandy, Barbara, Michael, Mary, Kathy and Bill, all of whom attended the College of Saint Benedict or Saint John’s University. The family continues to be active in the Saint John the Baptist Parish, Collegeville. The oldest son, Michael, is a highly skilled artisan who began working in the Saint John’s Abbey Woodworking Shop in 1983, most recently as its director, in addition to years of service as a member of the Saint John’s Fire Department. His wife, Peggy, is the archivist of Saint John’s University and the College of Saint Benedict.

We are very grateful to Dorothy and Hal with their children for their pioneering service to the Saint John’s community in our employ as well as their volunteering over many years in the abbey gift shop, university archives, Saint John the Baptist Parish, Memorial Day cemetery attention and flag insertions, and bundling the Abbey Banner for mailings.

Meet an Abbey Volunteer: Eileen Haeg

Eileen Haeg has endeared herself to the Saint John’s community over her many years of professional service beginning in 1974 as a nurse in the Abbey/University Health Center. In 1990 she became the Director of the Health Center, a position she held until her retirement in 2009. In 1998 Eileen was licensed as a Physician Assistant and became in effect the primary care person for many of the monks. But her retirement from Saint John’s didn’t last long. In 2011 Eileen was hired as the director of the newly created Abbey Volunteer Program, a part time responsibility she promoted for seven years. Eileen continues her involvement with the program now as a volunteer herself in the office who records the work hours of the volunteers and prepares monthly summary reports. Separately Eileen also volunteers as a member of the Raphael Hall Advisory Council for the abbey retirement center.

Eileen grew up on a family farm in Agram township with her two sisters in rural Pierz, Minnesota just east of Little Falls where she attended a country grade school for two years prior to Saint Joseph elementary school and the Memorial high school in Pierz. After graduation, Eileen enrolled in the diploma nursing program at the Saint Cloud hospital in 1959 and later received her BSN degree at the College of Saint Benedict in 1980. Her first job was in the Saint Cloud hospital part time for ten years while starting a family.

She met her multi-talented husband, Dick, now deceased, then a veteran student at Saint John’s, at Sammy’s Pizza, Saint Cloud, in 1958, and was married two years later at Saint Joseph Church, Pierz, in August 1960. Together they raised five boys and one girl, all having attended Saint John’s and Saint Ben’s. The eleven grandchildren certainly focus her attention and energy.

Eileen lives in her family home on a farm very near Saint John’s. Her skillful and handy husband completely remodeled the house in the detail of the original frame structure and filled it with antique treasures he gathered here and there and made them better along with an abundance of beautiful tiffany-style stained glass lamp shades.

This high energy cheery farm girl loves the outdoors and her farmyard is filled most everywhere with flowers of all kinds blooming throughout the summer and fall. Her formidable vegetable garden is an annual resource for family and neighbors. Of Eileen’s many talents she especially enjoys painting Christmas ornaments with her friend, Ingrid Drekonja, when she’s not reading or knitting or gardening or canning.

Meet an Abbey Volunteer: Rosemary Paur Walsberg and Kay Sheils

Rosemary Paur Walsberg spends a lot of time in her Two Harbors home with her Gammil long-arm sewing machine finishing the artful process of handmaking beautiful quilts of numerous sizes and designs. She's been at it upwards of fifty years first cutting and sewing together thousands of cloth pieces that make up the design and then sandwiching the top, batting, and back fabrics for quilting. In 1979 Rosemary made her first quilt for a Saint John's monk, Father Raymond Pedrizetti OSB, that began an annual tradition with her friend, Kay Sheils, another quilter from Two Harbors, of making quilts for monks in the Abbey Retirement Center and others. They stopped counting at about fifty. For years these two quilters and several others made an annual summer quilting retreat at Saint John's sponsored by Jeff Wubbels who also was awarded a quilt.

Rosemary grew up on a farm near Waubun, Minnesota on the White Earth Indian Reservation among seven brothers including two Chippewa foster boys. A brother, Fr Roman, noted that Rosemary was clearly the favored sibling. She studied radiological imaging at the Saint Cloud Hospital and much of her professional career was in mobile imaging in Duluth. Her two married sons live near Two Harbors along with four grandchildren.

Kay Sheils was born and raised in Two Harbors and became a registered nurse, practicing in the Twin Cities, Duluth, and Lakeview Memorial Hospital in Two Harbors until her retirement. Her husband, Jim, also retired, was an industrial arts instructor. They have eight children.

Meet an Abbey Volunteer: Dr. Michael Ross

Dr. Michael Ross began his thirty-five-year academic career in 1980 at Saint John's University in the Chemistry Department even as he was also dotting the i's and crossing the t's on the final draft of his doctoral dissertation at the University of Minnesota that he completed the following year. Michael was highly regarded by the students and he served on many committees over the years and chaired both the departments of Chemistry and Computer Science.

Michael was raised a long way from Collegeville in Pinehurst, Idaho, in a family of five children with their parents, both of whom had grown up on small farms near Breckenridge, Minnesota. Now living in Saint Joseph with his wife, Kris, they have five children (two of whom are Johnnies) and eight grandchildren.

Following his retirement in 2015, Michael became interested in volunteering and began at the local Habitat for Humanity ReStore program using his handyman skills. It was a small step for Michael to be attracted to the Abbey Woodworking Shop in 2016 that appealed to his values on the environment and conservation, and talents with his hands. He was grateful for what he felt Saint John's afforded him over the years and wanted to give back. Michael was a hobby woodworker for many years that started by refinishing beds, dressers, and tables and building some furniture for his home and family with his ever-expanding arsenal of hand and power tools.

Michael commented that the Abbey Woodworking Shop is an attractive perfect fit for his learning and creating! It's an extraordinary workplace where highly professional craftsmen exercise their skills in a climate of respect and opportunity. He appreciates and enjoys very much working and learning among them and other abbey volunteers. Michael has made many items available in the Abbey Gift Shop and online market including wood crosses and perhaps especially the popular Banner Bench in natural red oak! 

Meet an Abbey Volunteer: Patsy Jones

Patricia (Patsy) Jones lives in Edina, Minnesota and rides with Dr. Bill Muldoon, a fellow volunteer, once a week to spend the day at Saint John's. She was introduced to the Benedictines when she attended Catholic grade school taught by the Sisters from Saint Scholastica in Duluth where she later received her college degree. Patsy became a Benedictine Oblate in 1953 perhaps especially through a lasting relationship with Fr Arnold Weber OSB who instilled in Patsy and her now deceased husband, Mickey, a sense of Benedictine values and affinity with the Saint John's community. Some years later it was a small step as an active Oblate for Patsy to become an Abbey Volunteer with the encouragement of volunteer, Eileen Haeg. Patsy has been working now in her fourth years in the Abbey archives with the director, Br David Klingeman, learning more of the history of the monks as she sifts through important files and documents. Patsy is able to join the monks in noon prayer and concludes her day with the community Mass before returning home.

Meet an Abbey Volunteer: KC Marrin

Many generous people had volunteered their time and talent at Saint John’s over the years but in March 2011, Carol Marrin, who had been the Director of the CSB/SJU Bookstore and, later, the Saint John’s Bible Project, was appointed the director of the Abbey Volunteer Program.  Although sadly, cancer limited her commitment to six months, Carol organized and promoted the program that attracted many more volunteers over the years.  The first person to sign up was her tireless husband, Kevin Christopher Marrin, known as just KC, a 2011 veteran!   

KC embraced the opportunity with an extraordinary bucket of talent and energy.  He was born into a family of seven children, growing up in Minneapolis.  The six Marrin boys, following in the footsteps of their father, all attended Saint John’s Prep School.  He continued on in the University where he received his degree in 1971 as a philosophy and music major.  

While in college, KC was privileged to work as a student in the Abbey Woodworking Shop and was greatly inspired and mentored by the master craftsman monk, Br. Hubert Schneider OSB, who instilled in him a regard for wood craftsmanship and humility in respecting the environment. Br. Hubert also coached KC through the crafting of a rocking chair made from a small stash of Kentucky Cherry that he had saved for a worthy project.  KC developed a sense of design and cabinetmaking that also would come in handy as an abbey volunteer. The special Heritage edition of the Saint John’s Bible is displayed in a cabinet designed by KC and Heritage made in the Abbey Woodworking Shop as are other related pieces of Bible furniture.  The Saint John’s Cross, a popular graphic design by Brother Frank Kacmarcik, was realized in wood and brass by KC and is available in the Abbey Gift Shop, the University Bookstore, and the online Abbey Marketplace.

In the meantime, though, organ building became KC’s priority and livelihood, creating and restoring pipe organs for churches locally and throughout Minnesota including, for example, Opus 4, 1982, Saint Mary’s Cathedral, St. Cloud, Opus 6,1988, for the University Gerkten Organ Studio, (a 22 stop teaching instrument), and most recently, Opus 11, 2013, for his home parish Saint Boniface Church, Cold Spring. Currently, KC is volunteering time working with the internationally renowned organ builder, Martin Pasi, on the expansion of our Abbey Church pipe organ, preparing digital drawings, building an expanded organ console with four manuals and assisting the Abbey woodworking artisans with constructing the thirty-two-foot wooden pipes.

KC’s organ building also positioned him as a tuner and technician of pipe organs in the area, and he has volunteered to service the two abbey pipe organs (Holtkamp and Fiss) for over 25 years.  And, not surprisingly, KC continues to witness to our Benedictine vow of stability as a 30 year- plus veteran of the Abbey Schola. 

Meet an Abbey Volunteer: Sharon Schmitt

She was born on Christmas morning and grew up on the family farm near neighboring Albany, Minnesota. Sharon Rodenwald Schmitt knows all about milking cows by hand, stacking hay bales, picking rocks, shocking wheat, shoveling oats, gardening and more!  This gifted high-energy lady played the flute in the Albany High School band and starred in three class plays.  She was introduced to the Benedictines as a young girl in the Albany Holy Family elementary school.  

Sharon and Ken celebrated their 50thwedding anniversary in 2015 with their two daughters and son, all graduates of Saint Benedict’s and Saint John’s, and their eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, the love of their lives.

Sharon worked in the Saint Benedict’s Alumnae/Development Office 1962 - 1971 and then was a full-time mom for seven years until she was hired by Saint John’s University in 1978 where she coordinated the Study Abroad/International Studies programs until her retirement in 2008. During those thirty years, the offerings grew from four study abroad semester programs to fourteen.  Sharon found this work and interaction with students, monks, faculty directors, and foreign faculty deeply satisfying and rewarding.

After catching a short breath following her administrative duties in the University, Sharon became an Abbey Volunteer in 2009  to date as the manager of the Abbey Gift Shop, a challenging responsibility that includes coordinating the schedule of shop attendants, communicating with monastic artisan suppliers, overseeing and stocking the display inventory, and monitoring sales.

Ken and Sharon are immersed in family activities such as gardening, making jewelry, and the sports worlds of their grandchildren including CSB and SJU basketball and football.

The Benedictines of Saint John’s and Saint Ben’s are very grateful to Sharon for the many blessings of her thoughtful generosity and continuing commitment of time and talent. What a special Christmas present Sharon is to us!

Meet an Abbey Volunteer: Ron Joki

Ron Joki has been making the nearly sixty-mile trip from the Twin Cities, Saint Louis Park, most every Friday for a number of years arriving at Saint John’s in time for morning prayer with the community in the Abbey Church.  Ron volunteers as a driver for the monks in the abbey health center taking them to their scheduled appointments.

Ron grew up in a very small town in northern Minnesota called Zim and moved to the Twin Cities after graduating from high school where he attended the University of Minnesota with a life-long career in the College of Veterinary Medicine.  He wandered through numerous Christian faith traditions as well as Muslim and Hindu meditation before discovering Saint Theresa of Avila and St John of the Cross that anchored his spirituality with the help of a now-deceased former Benedictine Monk, Ryan Perkins, at the Newman Center where he became Catholic.

Before retiring in 2015 Ron worked as a veterinary scientist at the University of Minnesota Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory for nearly forty-five years.  Much of his work involved detection of disease and causes of death in animals submitted to the lab for testing.  Due to the nature of the work and potential exposure to pathogens, he and the team of veterinary pathologists and scientists were responsible for worker safety as well as containment of disease agents to protect the general population of people and animals.  

In some ways, Ron’s professional experience has made it easier for him to work in the health care setting of Saint Raphael Hall where he has found the staff provides loving and professional care for the residents.  Ron feels blessed for the opportunity to assist the senior monks and to hear their stories as well as to participate in the life and work of the Benedictines.  

Ron became a Benedictine oblate of Saint John’s Abbey in 1989 and the community is an important part of his spiritual journey.  He regularly participates in the oblate retreats and days of reflection, and over the years has become friends with a number of monks and oblates.  For the past twenty years, Ron also is the facilitator for a Twin Cities chapter of the Saint John’s oblates in his parish, Saint Joan of Arc, where he volunteers in several social justice and worship ministries that are spiritually enriching for him.

Meet an Abbey Volunteer: John Grobe

With this issue, we are introducing as a regular feature “Meet an Abbey Volunteer”.  There are over a hundred generous and talented women and men who volunteer their time and talent in many ways that are very helpful to the monastery as well as individual monks.  These good people come from near and far and work as their time allows contributing well over a combined 7,000 hours yearly.  Whether a few hours on-call as needed or a lot of hours every week, we are grateful.

Along with about a half dozen volunteers, John Grobe has been helping us in the Abbey Woodworking Shop for over three years most every week clocking as many as 90 hours in some months! In addition to skillfully assisting with regular production projects John designs and crafts items for the Abbey Gift Shop including wooden wall clocks, cutting boards, crosses, etc.

John graduated from Saint John’s University in 1972.  After retiring as an administrator of Saint Bernard’s Parish in Saint Paul and several law firms he moved with his wife Joan, a 1974 graduate of the College of Saint Benedict, to their new home on Kraemer Lake just two easy miles from Saint John’s. Their four children are now grown and are on their own.  John now shares his talent with the gifted Woodworking team alongside his son, Father Lew Grobe OSB, whom he volunteered to the Abbey in 2010!

The Abbey Woodworking Shop designs and makes much of the furniture on campus.  Most of the lumber (oak, maple, and pine) are harvested from the Saint John’s forests with some 20,000 board feet milled annually.  The Shop recently completed the red-oak lattice entry detail of the newly opened Saint John’s Bible Gallery in the University Alcuin library.

Meet an Abbey Volunteer: Wilfred Theisen, OSB

At nearly 90 years old Fr Wilfred Theisen, OSB is a very senior volunteer who is helping out for years as an attendant in the Abbey Gift Shop.  He calls it a “plum job” musing with visitors with his engaging disposition and cheerful smile about their lives and Saint John’s while ringing up sales. He says he is truly inspired by the many generous lay volunteers who help out “all over the place.”

A monk of Saint John’s Abbey since 1950 and ordained in 1956, Wilfred learned of Saint John’s as a young boy from abbey priests who celebrated Mass on weekends in his hometown parish at Wadena in Northern Minnesota.  Wilfred attended Saint John’s Prep, University and Seminary.  

His college teaching career in Physics of some fifty years between 1955 and 2005 was interrupted only by graduate studies on the history of science at the University of Madison where he received his PhD in 1972.  Wilfred also taught interdisciplinary courses as well as the freshman symposium and senior seminar classes.  For forty years concluding in 2016 Wilfred served as the Liaison Officer with the resident scholars of the Collegeville (Ecumenical) Institute.

It was a sad chapter when Wilfred swung his last golf club but he continues to be an avid sports enthusiast, especially football and basketball, and often shows up with his electric cart for home games and sometimes elsewhere too. Wilfred lives in the Abbey Retirement Center surrounded by Johnny sports memorabilia where he enjoys visiting with confreres and guests.

Meet an Abbey Volunteer: Bill Muldoon

A native of Boston, Massachusetts, Bill came to Minnesota in 1972 to earn a Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry from the University of Minnesota.  He first learned about the Benedictines of Collegeville in 1979 as an instructor in the Saint John’s University Chemistry Department.  Retiring from teaching early, Bill returned to live in Saint Paul and worked as a Pharmacist for ten years. He retired from full-time work in late 2007. For several years thereafter he continued to work part-time, as there was high demand for a licensed pharmacist.  

Abbot John Klassen talked to Bill of a need for volunteer help at the Monastery.  As an Oblate of Saint John’s since 2010, Bill thought about volunteering to work on Oblate-related issues.  Having a keen interest in genealogy, he proposed a project that combined that interest with some needs in the Oblate office.  His project consists of collecting data on the Oblates who made final profession and recording their death dates.  With this data, he developed a spreadsheet listing their deaths in chronological order so that we might remember them on the anniversary of their deaths as is done for vowed members of the Abbey. Bill pitches in when other program needs require him.   Otherwise, Bill continues to find and record information on the deceased Oblates. With over 4,500 names to investigate, he is able to hone his skills and put them to use in genealogical research on his own extended family as well.  Bill considers himself as a stickler for detail and he enjoys filling in the blanks of the Abbey’s Oblate community.  

Since 2011 Bill has been trecking to Saint John’s from his home in Saint Paul about one very full day working in the Oblate Program mostly in front of a computer! Fortunately, fellow volunteer, Patsy Jones, who lives in Edina rides with him and they both participate in the monastic noon prayer and community Mass.

Meet an Abbey Volunteer: Ed and Bernadette Dunn

Bernadette and Ed were both born and raised in the New York City area. Married for 53 years, they are proud parents of four adult children, two grandchildren, a step-granddaughter and a step-great-granddaughter. Ed served in the Navy for 26 years, after which they moved to Minnesota for Bernadette to pursue a Master of Divinity degree at St. John’s University School of Theology. Having earned her degree, Bernadette served as a pastoral associate and as Director of the Office of Christian Service for the Diocese of Crookston. After 12 years in Crookston, the couple returned to St. John’s where they began volunteering about seven years ago, most every weekday, all day and regularly participate in the monastic community Mass!  Bernadette works as a receptionist in the Abbey Guest House and Ed as a handyman in the Abbey Retirement Center.  “We volunteer here because we believe in the mission of St. John’s Abbey. St. John’s is our community who, from the very first day, welcomed us and invited us into their family.”

Meet an Abbey Volunteer: Barbara Lyndgaard

Barb Lyndgaard is the Saint John’s Abbey Retirement Center’s own personal barber.  She cut hair professionally for over forty years with the last 20 years at Saint John’s University as “The Hair Razor”. She is very happy to have a volunteer job she truly enjoys.  Barb lives on Kreigle Lake in Collegeville Township with her husband, Dave, a retired longtime University senior administrator.  Although they no longer live on their hobby farm which they had shared with a few dozen Icelandic sheep (and their llama, Edgar), Barb continues to spin, knit, weave and make quilts.  They love traveling, and this winter traveled to Hawaii, Marco Island, and Hilton Head Island. Now that winter snows are melting, they look forward to spring gardening, new landscape projects, and biking.  They biked over 1000 miles each of the past two summers and plan to bike even more miles this summer.  Their three children, Kyhl, Laura, and Dana, all live in Minnesota, so they can spend a lot of time with their four young grandchildren: Adeline, David Peregrine, Lars and Miles who love going to the lake!