Submitted by: Dan Rich

Cecil Bernard Mast

Feb. 21, 1927 - Sept. 16, 2008

South Bend Tribune 9/19/2008
SOUTH BEND - Cecil Bernard Mast, Professor Emeritus, University of Notre Dame, 81, died on Sept. 16 at Hammersmith House Nursing Care Center in Saugus, MA. His death was the final stop in a long journey with Alzheimer's Disease. Cecil was born in Chicago, Illinois, on Feb. 21, 1927, the son of George and Anna (Ordowski) Mast. His parents were second-generation German immigrants who raised their eight children in the largely German neighborhood of St. Benedict's Parish, near Wrigley Field. Cecil attended DePaul University on the GI Bill, completing his B.S. in physics in three years while working full time. The next turning point came when a professor recommended that he consider doing graduate work at the University of Notre Dame. He began his studies there in 1951 and graduated in 1956, living for part of the time as a caretaker in what is now LaFortune Student Center. For the rest of his life, Cecil regarded Notre Dame as his true home. After graduation, at the urging of his friend and colleague, Fr. Ernan McMullin, Cecil traveled to Ireland to do post-doctoral work at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Dublin. There he met Mary Faul, who was working as an administrator for the institute. After some time, he worked up the nerve to ask her out for lunch. Later, he told his children that if Mary had been busy that day, they would never have existed. Luckily she was free for lunch. Cecil and Mary were married in Louth Village, Ireland, in July, 1959, and shortly thereafter moved to South Bend, Indiana, so Cecil could begin teaching in the Mathematics Department at Notre Dame, where he was a professor until his retirement in 1998.

Cecil was a man of great intellectual curiosity. In addition to his research in theoretical physics, he contributed two papers to the anthology The Concept of Matter and wrote three textbooks; he also helped many neighborhood children (including his own) with their math homework. Cecil was very active in the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. Over the years he held every office in the local council, and he helped establish the Society's thrift store. He made many trips to bring food to families in need, and every Sunday for 25 years, he would visit the residents of a nearby nursing home, bringing them fruit and candy and lingering to chat or play cards. Cecil was most devoted to his family. His relatively flexible work schedule allowed him to be home when his children were sick and to take time in the summers for car trips to state parks and other destinations near and far. He enjoyed reading to his family around the fire, especially at Christmas time. He was always there to lend a sympathetic ear, provide sage guidance or just help out with a few "hard sums." He is survived by five sisters, Josephine Boyd, Rita Eisenhauer, Bernadette Renwick, Virginia Mast, and Mary Brown; his four children, Brigid (George) Alverson, Maura Mast (Jack Reynolds), Cecilia (Kevin) McTigue, Brian Mast (Jennifer Waits); and nine grandchildren, Elizabeth and Maura Alverson; Eileen, Brian, and Madeline McTigue; Brendan, Maeve and Nuala Reynolds; and Beatrice Waits-Mast, and many beloved nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his wife; by an infant child, Josephine; and his brothers, George and John Mast.

Visitation will be held on Sunday, September 21, at Kaniewski Funeral Home, South Bend, from 4 to 8 p.m. The Mass of Christian Burial will be said at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, Notre Dame, Indiana, at 9:30 a.m. on Monday, Sept. 22. In lieu of flowers, donations in Cecil's memory may be sent to the St. Vincent de Paul Society of St. Joseph County or to the Alzheimer's Association,