07/19/2019
Getting to know your SJC Board - Father Bill O'Donnell:
As we work towards restoring Saint Joseph’s College in Rensselaer to activity, our Board of Trustees has continued to be passionate and active in their efforts to bring this to a reality. We often get asked about who our current Board members are and we thought we’d have them begin introducing themselves, in their own words, over the coming weeks:
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Bill O’Donnell here. Proud member of the Class of 1971. I hail from Cleveland Ohio and am one of six children. I joined the Missionaries of the Precious Blood in 1964 and for that reason I attended Saint Joe. I have many happy memories of my four years in Rensselaer. The Sunday in August when I took the train ride from Cleveland to Chicago and how frightened I was making the journey to another rail station blocks away to take the Monon south to Rensselaer. I remember my mother specifically telling me to keep my eyes focused on where I was going and if I got lost, I should find a policeman and ask for directions. Those were great directions for life, now that I think of it.
Saint Joe then became center of my life for the next four years. Those were days of great change and transition not only for the church but for the country at large. Change was so fast paced that there was never a time to prepare for or to process what was happening. Mongies (remember that is what the seminarians were called) entered and left through what seemed like revolving doors in Xavier Hall. The late sixties and seventies were also filled with tragic assassinations and a lingering war that divided the nation.
When I look back, I ask myself how I survived those tumultuous times. The answer is Saint Joseph College. Remember the old saying, “It takes a village to raise a child.” Let me adjust that a little when I apply it to my college years, “It takes a community to raise a college student.” I look back at my time at Saint Joe with great gratitude and I become more aware on almost a daily basis the difference those four years made in my life. I think of the C.PP.S priest and brothers that inspired me and challenged me: Red McKay, Father Albin Scheidler, Rufus Esser, Rudy Bierberg, Ernie Ranly, Charles Rueve, Black Mack McCarthy, Al Druman, Paul White, Larry Heiman, Charles Banet, Ambrose Heiman, Phil Gilbert, Brothers Fidelus, Robert, Louis Stock. Interesting characters all, humble and dedicated. All gave their lives in service to the college and its students with little recognition but a small stipend each month.
I also look back at many lay professors that made a profound impact on my life: Don Brinley, Robert Wood, Ralph Cappuccelli John and Anne Marie Egan, John Nichols and many more. The funeral of John Egan earlier this summer brought many grateful Pumas together. I looked out from the sanctuary and saw many faces from my time, happy that so many remembered and came together to say thank you to an extraordinary man.
I made friends from the student body and from the Rensselaer Community and many of those friendships last to this day.
Three special memories shape my life to this day. Rudy Bierberg in an Into to Theology Class, defining in a way I had never heard before what the ministry of the priest is all about. We are all blessed by moments of clarity that sets us on a path. This was one for me.
Secondly, Ralph Cappuccilli calling me into his office one day for what I anticipated would be a stern lecture. What I heard was a wise, kind and visionary person who told me that I had a special gift. I think this was the first time a person in authority had told me I had something important to offer the world.
And finally, gathering at Rafferty’s for a final brew with a few friends on the night before we graduated knowing that life was about to make a big change for all of us. As were about to leave, one of the girls wanted to ask me a question for the entire group of six. Why did I want to be a priest and waste my life? (this is the sanitized version) No one ever put that question to me in those terms or in any terms up to that point. I fumbled for an answer and what I said was not really convincing even to me. I promised to find a better answer to their question and we all promised to meet again in six months. We did and I was better prepared. I cannot describe in words how sacred and important that question was from friends who cared about me. All six friends were present five years later when I was ordained a Missionary of the Precious Blood.
I have also had the privilege to serve on the Board of Trustees for now what will be my third term over the years. So many dedicated alumni and others have given so much. Inspired by so many I hope and pray we can bring the Saint Joe Campus back to life with educational ministries relevant to our times and worthy of our rich history.
Years have passed. I am now a priest for forty-two years. I have fallen on my face a few times over the years but I have with help got up and found my way forward. I am convinced that my time as a St. Joe Puma taught me some of those survival skills I have needed. And I am grateful.
Fr. Bill
