- ST.
NORBERT ABBEY
- DE
PERE, WISCONSIN, U.S.A.
- R.D. Jordan R.
Blecha, O. Praem.
- b. Wednesday,
May 21, 1913 – d. Saturday, May 10, 2003
Our brother Jordan Blecha was born in Athens,
Wisconsin
in 1913. After graduating from
St.
Norbert High, he joined the Order in 1932, and was solemnly professed in 1937.
Assigned
to Southeast Catholic in 1935 to teach English, he was transferred to Archmere
in 1942, and then to Central Catholic in 1945, where he was appointed athletic
director in 1950. During the
intervening summers,
Jordan
attended the college, U.W. Madison, and Villanova
University. When Central became Premontre,
Jordan
was placed in charge of the bookstore.
Being
the out-doors-man he was,
Jordan
spent many summers helping out in
Montana, in Valier,
Billings,
Hingham, and finally Shelby, where he was pastor of St. William from 1978 until 1982.
An avid hunter and fisherman, many sports seasons were spent at Camp
Sayner
with like-minded confreres.
In 1983, Jordan
retired to the abbey, but remained busy with the Cursillo (core-SEE-o) movement
and conducting koinonias (coin-a-KNEE-ahs) right up to his death on Saturday,
May 10, 2003 at the age of 89.
