Submitted by: Dan Rich

Br. Leo V. Geiger CSC

April 11, 1922 - Sept. 8, 2005

South Bend Tribune 9/9/2005

Brother Leo Vincent Geiger, CSC, 83, died after a long illness on Thursday, Sept. 8, in Dujarie House, Holy Cross Village, Notre Dame, Ind. Br. Leo was born on April 11, 1922, in Lancaster, Pa., the son of Mr. and Mrs. John A. and Mary (Sabinash) Geiger. He attended St. Anthony of Padua Elementary School, Lancaster Catholic High School and Stevens Trade School in Lancaster. Before he joined the U.S. Army Air Corps, he worked briefly as a planing mill carpenter and as a general carpenter, then after the war, as a general carpenter until 1947. He was mustered out of the Air Corps in 1945 with the rank of first lieutenant.

Sensing a call to religious life, Leo joined the Holy Cross Brothers' initial training program at St. Joseph's Juniorate, Valatie, N.Y., in September 1947. In February 1948 Br. Leo began his formal training as a Brother of Holy Cross at St. Joseph Novitiate, Rolling Prairie, Ind. He pronounced temporary vows on Feb. 2, 1949, and three years later professed his perpetual vows on Aug. 16, 1952, at Sacred Heart Church, Notre Dame, Ind.  He studied at the University of Notre Dame from 1949-1951 but finished his academic work in the new program for brothers set up at St. Edward's University, Austin, Texas, earning a bachelor's of science degree. These studies, plus his earlier professional training and experience, helped him to become a superb teacher of industrial arts, a specialized area of education requiring not only the skill necessary to be productive oneself, but to be able to transmit the knowledge his students needed to support their general education, yet to provide them with a manual skill that could be called upon throughout life to enable participation in hobbies and minor repair or construction work.

Apart from two years as a staff member at Fr. Gibault School for Boys in Terre Haute, Ind., from 1954-1956, Br. Leo spent the remainder of his career of 40 years teaching industrial arts and helping in campus ministry at the then-new St. Edward High School in Lakewood, Ohio. He significantly enriched the lives of the young men he taught. He retired in 1996, remaining at St. Edward's and continuing to assist in the school's campus ministry program until his health required him to seek care available in the brother's assisted and skilled living programs at Schubert Villa and Dujarie House at Holy Cross Village, Notre Dame. The zealous intensity Br. Leo brought to his preparation and teaching flowed over from his personality and temperament. He was a quiet, gentle man, patient, habitually a hard worker, creative, and pleasant to live with in the brothers' community. He was above all a man of prayer, often found in the school chapel, and his participation in prayer groups both outside his local community of brothers and among them illustrated his keen desire to be the prophetic image of God present in the world his calling as a religious demanded.

Failing in health gradually over time, Br. Leo came from Cleveland to Notre Dame to receive the attention offered by the professional health care staff. He was conscious of his deteriorating condition, and as it worsened into full-blown Alzheimer's, he no doubt to some degree recognized the implications and, remaining cheerful and resigned to God's will in his life, he accepted his situation and largely overcame the frustrations imposed on him by the disease.

Visitation will begin at 2:30 p.m. today, Sept. 9, in St. Joseph's Chapel, the brothers' Holy Cross Village at Notre Dame. A Mass of Christian Burial will follow at 3:30 p.m., with interment immediately afterward at St. Joseph's Cemetery on the Village grounds. Kaniewski Funeral Home is handling arrangements.