- ST.
NORBERT ABBEY
- DE
PERE, WISCONSIN, U.S.A.
- Brother
Gerlach J. Riess, O. Praem.
- b. Friday, Feb. 28,
1919 – d. Thursday, May 3, 2001
Our brother
Gerlac Riess (REEsss) was born in Shawano in 1919.
Gerlac became a postulant for the Order in 1940 and was vested as a
novice in 1941. He professed solemn
vows in 1946.
“Jack,”
his baptismal name, was first appointed to the Southeast Catholic faculty house
at 920 Christian Street in 1944, where he was porter and did manual work around
the priory.
In
1949, he was transferred back to the abbey, where he worked in the kitchen
making salads of lime Jell-O and green garden peas and desserts of grape Jell-O
with nuts, chocolate chips and whipped cream.
During this time he was also Abbot Killeen’s private housekeeper, and
the main porter at the abbey entrance.
With
the move to the new abbey in 1959, Jack moved in with his canaries and parakeets
to the room next to the bell tower on the second floor.
He lived in that same room, changing birds as they died, for the next 25
years. In 1984, he became
active/retired and moved into Xanten cloister with “Peetie” and “Willie
III”. Daily, he picked up the
newspapers strewn about the community room by the “Fathers,” filled the
candy dishes, carted the dirty dishes left by the Fathers back to the kitchen
for washing, and all with humility and care.
A man of quiet demeanor and few words, Gerlac wrote birthday letters to
confreres, who were away from the abbey, informing them of the goings-on at the
motherhouse. He was truly a caring,
simple man.
Plagued
by multiple physical problems, it was best not to ask him how he was unless one
wanted to be tied up for a long, full-blown description. After a premature
tolling of the church bells announcing his death, Gerlac really did die
on Thursday, May 3, 2001 at the age of 82!
