May
31, 1930 - April 27, 2010SOUTH BEND - Rev. Harry B. Eichorn, C.S.C., died at Holy Cross House, Notre Dame, IN, on Tuesday, April, 27, 2010. He was 79 years old. Fr. Eichorn was born to Frank and Anna (Burns) Eichorn on May 31, 1930, in Brooklyn, NY. After the family moved to Mount Rainier, MD, he attended St. James Parish School before entering Holy Cross Minor Seminary for high school at Notre Dame, IN, in 1944. He entered Sacred Heart Novitiate in South Bend, IN, on August 15, 1948, and made his first vows on August 16, 1949. Returning to Moreau Seminary at Notre Dame for college, he spent the next four years studying. After graduating in 1953, he went to Holy Cross College in Washington, D.C., to study theology. Fr. Eichorn's family had moved to the DC area so he was ordained to the priesthood at the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., on June 8, 1957. Fr. Eichorn's first assignment was to teach and prefect at Notre Dame. In his free time, he took graduate classes in English and received a master's degree in 1958. In the summer of 1958, he moved to northern California where he lived with the Holy Cross Brothers at St. Francis High School in Mountain View while doing doctoral work at nearby Stanford University. From 1962 to 1968, he taught at Notre Dame and was also a prefect and a rector and a chaplain to the Notre Dame Glee Club. He returned to Stanford for research during one semester in 1965. He received his doctorate from Stanford in 1968. In 1968 he began a long career as a professor of English at Stonehill College in North Easton, MA. During his first seven years at Stonehill, besides teaching he was also a resident hall priest and a faculty advisor to The Summit (the students' newspaper). He also assisted the Director of Campus Ministry by providing sacraments to students, faculty and staff on weekends and weekdays. Assigned to various Holy Cross residences after these early years, he became the editor of the Faculty Forum for several years; he also became an officer of the Faculty Assembly for many years, and was a member of numerous committees to which members of the faculty elected him. At the time of his retirement as a professor of English in 1998, he began to work at Stonehill College's Writing Center, a division of the college's Academic Service Department. This work involved being a writing consultant, a tutor, and a counselor. He entered Holy Cross House in 2007. Fr. Eichorn was preceded in death by his parents, Frank and Anna (Burns) Burke, and his sister, Ruth. He is survived by a brother, Frank Eichorn, and several nieces and nephews. Viewing for Fr. Eichorn will be held in the Chapel of Moreau Seminary, University of Notre Dame, today, April 29th, from 3:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., with a wake service at 7:30 p.m. The funeral Mass will be celebrated at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, Notre Dame, on Friday, April 30th, at 3:30 p.m. Kaniewski Funeral Home is handling arrangements. Memorial contributions to support the mission and ministries of the Priests of Holy Cross, Indiana Province, may be made to Priests of Holy Cross, Indiana Province, Office of Development, P.O. Box 765, Notre Dame, IN 46556.