Father Robert Joseph Schwenker, OMI, a 1954 graduate of St. Charles has been described as a saintly man who truly wanted – and did – live the Gospel. To fulfill his quest, he devoted his life to prayer and meditation, to the desperate, and to the poorest of the poor. It was a lonely life, but one that he readily embraced. A former St. Charles classmate described it this way in an article published by Notre Dame Magazine: “…the pearl he (Schwenker) quested drew him ever further into an internal world that few appear to traverse. It was one of poverty, countless hours of meditation, a dietary discipline aimed at combating violence, and the preaching of a single Gospel message of repentance and salvation to the poor.”

Father Bob, as he was known to friends, died last March from injuries he suffered when struck down, presumably by a motor vehicle that left the scene, while on his usual early-morning jog alone in one of the poorer neighbors of Bogota, Columbia. Found lying unconscious by the side of the road, he was taken to a hospital where he died the next day without regaining consciousness. Father Schwenker had been a missionary in Columbia since 2000. Because of his opposition to the illicit drug trade and the suspicious nature of the fatal incident, a police investigation was conducted.

The funeral and burial of Father Schwenker were in Bogota. “He was an example for all of us in his dedication to the poor and in his simple way of life,” said Fr. Roger M. Hallee, OMI, a friend who also ministers in Bogotá. “As I try to pick up the pieces and continue the work that he has begun I realize how much he meant to the people of the area,” Hallee said of Fr. Schwenker. “He was close to them and was attentive to their needs.”

Father Schwenker had moved last February from the novitiate to take up permanent resident in the hillside community in Ciudad Bolivar. He lived and worked among people in constant need of help -- rural people from broken homes, street people, and others in dire straits. “In his desire to be present to the poor, he wanted to live in the area and care for their spiritual as well as their material needs,” Fr. Hallee said

Schwenker was born Jan.1, 1936, in Columbus to Thelma and Charles Schwenker. After graduating from St. Charles, he enrolled at the University of Notre Dame where he earned his undergraduate degree in 1958. He was ordained a priest in Washington, D. C., May 31, 1969, when he completed his philosophical and theological studies at Oblate College there. Fr. Bob’s first priestly assignment, from 1969 to 1975, was at Holy Angels Church in Buffalo, N.Y. He served the next six years as vocation director for his Oblate order.

After fulfilling this assignment, Fr. Bob requested missionary work among the poor. During the next 23 years, he worked in missions in Puerto Rico, Haiti, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and finally in Colombia. In his typical desire to serve the destitute, at his request, was assigned to and served six years in the Oblates’ poorest mission in Haiti. Later, Fr. Bob was one of the founders of his Oblate order’s mission in Columbia.

Holy Angels Parish in Buffalo, N.Y., where Fr. Bob had his first assignment as a priest, this October dedicated its new parish center and outreach facility in his memory. Parish members and officials felt it was a fitting, living memorial to their friend and mentor.

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