Brother Fred Stelmach , FSC 1928-2012

Eulogy given by
Brother Kevin Strong, FSC

Brother Fred would have loved looking out at the Brothers, friends, and family assembled here to honor him for his almost eighty-four years of productive and creative life. Fred was my good friend for forty-two years. We traveled the highways and the by-ways together in Ireland, Hawaii, Bermuda, and many other locales. He was the best of company, always full of good humor with lots of stories.

We first met when I was assigned to La Salle High School as his assistant art teacher. It was my first attempt as an art instructor. I had been a student of art at Catholic University as well as at Tyler Art School in Elkins Park. However, I learned more from Fred than I did in art school. He had his own style and was quite accomplished in his field. Fred also gave me a keen insight into the ability of each student. Fred would sit in the midst of the lads and demonstrate quite ably what could be done on canvas with a mixture of his own colors. I admired his finished product with envy. He was a master craftsman, and his students admired his work as well as his manner of friendly instruction. Saint Michael on the hall here that bears his name is testimony to Fred’s able instruction of Joseph Wesner, its artist.

In the Brothers’ community, directed by Fred, we were a sizable group of thirty or so, very ably lead by him. He took a special liking to me, and I spent six happy years building a lifelong friendship with him. As a teacher, mentor, and moderator of La Salle’s Mothers’ Club, Fred’s personality enriched the lives of hundreds of people, maybe even thousands. He made a deep impression on everyone he met with his warm and humorous personality.

He loved his own family with a passion and shared them with me on many visits to New Jersey and summer jaunts to Lake George, and Ocean City, New Jersey. My life was richly blessed by his warmth and sense of humor. We often vied with each other on telling the latest stories.

Fred was deeply spiritual and a strong believer in the Presence of God in people. My own training as a Brother made me convinced of God’s Presence in the goodness of persons. Fred’s reverence for his students, his family, and his brothers, greatly deepened my convictions about God’s Presence on a daily basis in his caring ways and generous spirit which touched nearly everyone who came under his influence. Many past pupils and older Brothers will attest to the scope of his winsome and generous ways. He brought God very much into each day with his quiet manner of touching the hearts of all who were within his scope of influence! He was a marvel, and God surely wanted him to be my friend.

All of us here today are thankful for his full life and the many sources of blessings we could all enumerate. Just to think of him, his stories, and his friendliness brings smiles to our faces. We have truly been blessed.

Gerard Manley Hopkins, in the picturesque and beautiful words of his poem, “Heaven-Haven,” gives us further insight into Fred’s longing for God’s heavenly Presence:

I have desired to go
Where springs not fail.
To fields where flies no sharp or sided hail,
And a few lilies blow.

And I have asked to be
Where no storms come
Where the green swell is in the havens dumb
And out of the swing of the sea.

And finally, this poem captures Fred’s home sickness for heaven, his family and his friends:

Slow the pace
It seems
To return home.
Long is the journey to our Father’s house
Migrant geese spell “home”
Across the evening sky.
Now you are home
Peace at last!