Submitted by: Dan Rich
Br. Charles Hill, CSC
March 5, 1922 - Oct. 24, 2004
South Bend Tribune 10/25/2004
Br. Charles Hill, CSC, 82, died after a lengthy illness in St. Joseph Regional Medical Center, Mishawaka, Ind., on Sunday, Oct. 24. Br. Charles was born in Akron, Ohio, on March 5, 1922, the son of Charles and Mary (Crask) Hill. He was one of seven children, three of whom preceded him in death. Surviving are Dorothy Secrest and Mary Chambliss, both of Stow, Ohio, and Leon of North Canton, Ohio. Br. Charles attended elementary and secondary school in Akron, and later earned a bachelors degree from the University of Notre Dame.
He entered the Brothers of Holy Cross at Watertown, Wis. in 1947 and received the religious habit at the novitiate at Rolling Prairie, Ind. in August of that year. He pronounced his first vows in 1948 and his final vows in 1951. After graduating from Notre Dame and serving a short time at Fr. Gibault School for Boys in Terre Haute, Ind. Br. Charles was assigned to the foreign missions of the congregation in E.Bengal, now Bangldesh. He studied languages for a time in 1952--53, and began his work in the missions in 1953, appointed successively to Holy Cross High School, Bandura, St. Joseph's Trade School, Narinda (Dhaka), and the St. Joseph English Medium High School in Dhaka.
In 1966, he returned to the U.S. to teach at St. Edward High School in Lakewood, Ohio, where he remained until 1973. That year he began his ministry at Boysville of Michigan, Clinton, Michigan, where he remained until 2004 when his health suggested he come to Notre Dame and the brothers' assisted living program at Schubert Villa.
Br. Charles exhibited an unusually keen sensitivity to the thoughts and feelings of others, a quality that enabled him to become a fraternal, paternal or grandfatherly adviser and confidant to many of his fellow religious and to literally hundreds of students in the schools in which he taught, or to young men in difficulty who were placed at Boysville of Michigan, Br. Charles's most recent apostolic assignment. Many are the boys who benefited from Br. Charles's open and ready willingness to listen, to affirm and to advise in a straightforward but kindly manner. His was a ministry of quiet and supportive presence.
As Br. Charles approached retirement, he began to devote more time to a hobby, fashioning trophy awards for various clubs, sports and other purposes. Eventually the hobby became a full time job, his headquarters began to be known as "Awardsville," and from there he furnished thousands of trophies for Knights of Columbus bowling tournaments and for other organizations and occasions. Although very much involved in this new business venture, Br. Charles remained on always interested and effective counselor to the boys at the school, both by his constant perfecting presence among them and by the numerous opportunities he found to seek out and counsel young men whom he sensed were in need of a sympathetic but demanding ear.
His perpetual good humor and tendency toward punning and relating humorous stories and situations endeared him to all. He will be missed at Boysville as also among his confreres in Holy Cross. But his absence will be especially regretted by the many boys whose lives were enriched and fortified by his professional but personal concern.
Visitation will begin at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 26, in St. Joseph's Chapel, the Brothers' Holy Cross Village at Notre Dame, 54515 St. Rd. 933. A mass of Christian Burial will follow at 2:30 p.m., with interment immediately afterward at St. Joseph's Cemetery on the Village grounds. Kaniewski Funeral Home is handling arrangements.