Eulogy by Brother Stephen Creagh, FSC
(with the assistance of Brother Jerome Cox, FSC)
Like many other NY and LINE Brothers, during the 60s and 70s, Brother Kevin Malinowski felt the call to serve in the missions. When he was teaching at Mater Christi HS in NYC, he told the Visitor of his desire, and Kevin was sent to St Joseph’s School in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He had a gift for languages and soon spoke Amharic fluently. After a few years, he was put in charge of running the summer school at St Joe’s. Later on, he worked in Dire Dawa and Meki in Ethiopia. The semi-arid places always seemed to appeal to him. He survived on warm beer, meat and chips, and told many a waiter to hold the salad and the greens. But he really wanted to work with street children. The Maryknoll Fathers also had plans along the same lines, but neither Kevin nor the Maryknollers could get permission to start this sort of work.
So, in 1976, Brother Kevin went down to Arusha, Tanzania, and arranged with American Bishop Denis Durning, CSSp to work with secondary and post-secondary school youth in his diocese. The Bishop lived in a ramshackle house next to a small church on the outskirts of Arusha town. He gave Kevin permission to use the church hall and other facilities on the church compound. Here, Kevin started the Arusha Youth Centre where teenagers could recreate after school or during their free time. Kevin provided games, body building equipment, and some school textbooks that the students could use to study. Many of these young students had no place to study at home, and Kevin provided desks and electric lights so they could study in the evening. He quickly learned the local language, Kiswahili, so that he could also give these teenagers advice and guidance and some help with their school work. He was also the distributor of goods that came in containers from the Salvatorians in Wisconsin. It was not unusual to find all the chairs in his room stacked with Wisconsin cheddar! Kevin worked in Arusha for 12 years and, during his last year there, he trained a Tanzanian layman to take over from him.
After a short leave in the US, Kevin went to Rongai Secondary School in 1989. He taught there for a year. One of his favorite stories, which he liked to tell, was when he went one day to Nakuru Game Park, not far from the school, with Brothers Joseph Schafer and Stephen Creagh. While they were driving in the park, a leopard jumped right in front of the car. That was the only time this elusive animal was ever spotted in that park.
The previous December, the Brothers of the sector made the decision to open a school in a marginal area of Kenya. Bishop Ambrose Ravasi, IMC was very anxious for the De La Salle Brothers to staff a new school he was building for the pastoral people of the Marsabit Diocese in northern Kenya. Brother Jerome Cox, the local superior, asked Kevin and Brother Michael O’Hara, a British Brother, to begin the school, which was to be called St. Paul’s Secondary School. Before the school year began, Kevin and Michael decided to tour the diocese in order to get acquainted with the area their students were coming from. They drove 850 miles along unpaved roads, some not better than a track, in a Toyota four wheel drive pickup, and covered an area about the size of Switzerland. It was a safari they did not repeat in subsequent years! During that first year, Brother Michael had several attacks of malaria and had to return to England. In 1991, Brother Emmet Sinitiere joined Kevin. He was a kindred spirit. Kevin and Emmet were not ones to worry about creature comforts or food. They both had a cigarette and coffee for breakfast each morning. During morning meditation in the dark chapel, one could see the glow of two cigarettes and hear a quiet slurp of coffee.
The Bishop wanted the school to have an emphasis on Christian Leadership so that the students could have a positive Christian influence when they finished school and returned to their home parishes. And the Brothers tried to instill that in their students.
The two Brothers pretty much taught all the courses in the school. Water was very scarce. An electric generator provided lighting only for a few hours at night. Most food had to be bought in Isiolo, about 100 unpaved miles away. For most of the boys it was the first time in their lives that they were having three meals a day. Around Easter time that first year, Kevin went to Nairobi and bought a VCR. Ninja movies on Saturday night became the high point of the students’ week.
Kevin was delighted with the election of the Polish Pope, John Paul I. When on home leave he would copy cassettes, more than a few of which featured the life and times of the Pontiff and coverage of many of the Pope’s journeys. They are probably still up there on a shelf in the Brothers’ house in northern Kenya.
But the harsh conditions in the Northern Frontier District of Kenya took a toll on Kevin’s health. At the end of the school year in 1994, the Superior had to order Kevin to return to the States to get medical attention. Some years later, he returned to Kenya again, briefly, and taught at Mwangaza Centre in Nakuru, Kenya. He also taught for a short period at St. Brendan’s in northern South Africa. This gave him the distinction of being a “four country” African missionary.
But he never really recovered his health. Poor Kevin suffered greatly during the last years of his life. After some time in hospitals and nursing homes in Detroit, the District nurse, Mary Gorman, persuaded him to go to De La Salle Hall. There, Kevin seemed happy and at peace. He loved being with the Brothers, as well as with the surroundings, and the association with all the workers at De La Salle Hall.
I can hardly imagine how wonderful it is going to be for Kevin to welcome to heaven all the students he guided during his life. May he live on in the joy and peace of the Lord.
Please pray for the happy repose of the soul of
Br. Kevin Malinowski, FSC
Born Harry Joseph Malinowski in Detroit, MI on July 20, 1940
Entered the Barrytown Novitiate on July 7, 1958
Received the Religious Habit and Name, Brother Kevin John, on September 7, 1958
Pronounced Perpetual Vows at Manhattan College, NY in 1965
Brother Kevin died at Monmouth Medical Center, Long Branch, NJ, on May 19, 2012
FUNERAL ARRANGEMENTS
Monday, May 21, 2012
Viewing from 2:00 – 4:00 pm
De La Salle Hall
810 Newman Springs Road
Lincroft, NJ 07738-1608
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Mass of Christian Burial at 10:00 am
De La Salle Hall
810 Newman Springs Road
Lincroft, NJ 07738-1608
Burial at St. Gabriel’s Cemetery, Marlboro, NJ
SUFFRAGES FOR OUR DECEASED BROTHER KEVIN
District: 50 masses
De La Salle Hall community: 30 masses
Each community in the District: 1 mass
Brother Kevin died peacefully late Saturday evening after a lengthy illness. He was transferred to Monmouth Medical Center on Thursday evening for an aggressive program to wean him off the ventilator, but his blood pressure dropped very low and his kidneys began to fail. May he rest in peace.
Tour of Duty
1963-1966
teacher
Detroit, MI
De La Salle
1966-1968
teacher
Astoria, NY
Mater Christi High School
1968-1974
teacher
Dire Dawa, ETHIOPIA
College of Notre Dame
1974-1975
special apostolate
Addis Ababa, ETHIOPIA
St. Joseph
1975-1982
special apostolate
Arusha, TANZANIA
Diocese of Arusha
1982-1983
study
Detroit, MI
De La Salle Community
1983-1988
special apostolate
Arusha, TANZANIA
Diocese of Arusha
1988-1989
teacher
Rongai, KENYA
Rongai Secondary School
1989-1995
founding principal
Marsabit, KENYA
St. Paul’s Secondary School
1995-1996
returned for health reasons
Warren, MI
De La Salle Collegiate Community
1996-2001
principal
Meki, ETHIOPIA
Meki Catholic Mission School
2001-2004
teacher
Bandelierkop, S. AFRICA
St. Brendan’s School
2004-2006
principal
Nakuru, KENYA
Mwangaza College
2006-2011
teacher
Warren, MI
De La Salle Collegiate
2011-2012
retired
Lincroft, NJ
De La Salle Hall