Br. Robert Weinmann, C.S.C.

Robert Wayne Weinmann was born in Atchison, Kansas on May 17, 1940, the second child and oldest son of Louis P. Weinmann and Virginia Antle Weinmann.  Both of his parents were born in Atchison, Kansas, grew up there, and married in Atchison.  Robert was baptized and confirmed at St. Benedict Church.  The family later moved to St. Joseph Parish, also a Benedictine parish in Atchison, where Robert attended grammar school as well.  He went on to Maur Hill Prep High School in Atchison where he graduated in 1958.

In March of 1958 he sent an application to join the Brothers of Holy Cross to Austin, Texas.  In the application he said he wanted to be a missionary.  He was accepted into the Brothers and went to the candidate program at Sacred Heart College in Watertown, Wisconsin, for the summer of 1958.  From there, he went on to St. Joseph Novitiate in Rolling Prairie, Indiana, where he was received as a novice on August 15, 1958.  On August 16, 1959, he made his first profession of vows at the novitiate.  He also professed the fourth vow to go wherever the Superior General might want to send him.  He was then assigned to the Vincent Hall Scholasticate in Austin, Texas.

After a couple of years at St. Edward's University, Brother Robert was assigned to Rancho San Antonio.  Brother John McLaughlin, Director there, said that Robert excelled in working with the young men in ceramics and art.  While at Rancho, Robert began formal studies of painting and ceramics through UCLA in the San Fernando Valley program they had.  He also took additional courses leading to his degree which he finally earned from St. Edward's University in August, 1966.  Brother Robert had also professed his perpetual vows at Sherman Oaks on August 16, 1962.

He was then told he could have an extended visit with his family but that in early September he would travel from Miami with Brother Joseph Lahare.  Brother Theodosius followed up with a letter about getting his passport and other documents ready and told him he would study Portuguese in Campinas for a semester and encouraged him.  This was the same Brother Theodosius who expressed constant concern in Robert's formation evaluations about his tendency to "mangle the English language."

Thus began the great adventure of Brother Robert's life as a missionary.  For the next nearly fifty years he was a Brazilian.  He spent most of his time in the south in Campinas, but he did spend one year working with the younger students at Juvenato Santa Cruz, an elementary school in the area just outside of Santarem.  Except for a renewal program he took at Sangre de Cristo in Santa Fe, NM and a year on the staff at Rancho San Antonio in 1982-1983, he lived in Campinas.  He also served a short time at Nuestra Senora de Aparecida Parish in Petrolina in Pernambuco.  He found that experience very difficult and a great cultural shift.  From 1990 to 1999 he served as the District Superior.  After that he devoted himself almost full time to the development of CECOIA (the Brother Andre Community Center), a program for young people to be engaged in positive activities while their parents were working.

In 1996, Brother Robert was diagnosed with a disease which destroyed his kidney functioning.  By the time he was diagnosed, his kidney function had been severely impaired and he required dialysis three times a week.  He was faithful to this since he knew without the dialysis he would die.  He returned from Brazil to live in Austin and focus on his art work in2014.  About two weeks ago he began experiencing some health issues which necessitated hospitalization.  He improved enough to be released to a skilled care location fairly close to his home where he would engage in physical therapy to gain his strength back for day to day living.  The morning after his release he returned to the hospital due to some complications.  He passed away on July 30, 2021, surrounded by Brothers Richard Critz, Richard Daly, and Donald Blauvelt and Nurse Debbie Summers from the Brother Vincent Pieau staff.

Brother Robert was preceded in death by his parents, Louis and Virginia Weinmann and a brother, Edwin F. Weinmann.

Due to Covid considerations, his funeral services were private for his family and his Holy Cross religious community.  He has been eulogized greatly by those with whom he worked in Brazil.  He may have mangled English and he certainly mangled Portuguese, but like others before him he showed that it isn't always formal language which is needed in communication with others, but a heart.

Brother Robert is survived by three sisters, Alice Scott, Atchison, KS; Deborah Schneider, Atchison, KS; Sharon Meier, Atchison, KS; a brother, Dennis Weinmann, Atchison, KS

Memorial contributions in memory of Brother Robert are suggested to Congregation of Holy Cross, Moreau Province and may be sent in care of Arensberg-Pruett Funeral Home, 208 North 5 ^th Street, Atchison, Kansas  66002.