Submitted by: Dan Rich

Br. Donald Dunleavy CSC

Sept. 1, 1928 - Oct. 4, 2005

South Bend Tribune 10/6/2005

Br. Donald Dunleavy, CSC, 77, died after an illness on Tuesday, Oct. 4, in Dujarie House, Holy Cross Village, Notre Dame, Ind. Br. Donald was born on Sept. 1, 1928, in Harvard, Nebraska. On August 15, 1953, at the age of 25, he entered the Brothers of Holy Cross at St. Joseph Novitiate, Rolling Prairie, Ind. He made his first profession of vows on August 16, 1954, and his perpetual vows on August 16, 1957.

Following a short assignment at Silver Lake farm on the novitiate grounds, he joined the staff of St. Joseph's Farm, Granger, Ind., where he remained the rest of his life. Here he engaged in the demanding but rewarding tasks large-scale farming implies, such as readying steers for market and transporting them in the farm's semi tractor trailer, or helping maintain farm equipment, doing the plowing, or harvesting, as well as other seasonal chores common to life on a busy farm.

Br. Donald served many years as superior of the local community of his fellow brothers assigned to the farm, and was for many years director of the farm itself. His personal relationship with the neighboring farming community in the ever-expanding Granger area, and with the residents and commercial enterprises that began occupying the substantial acreage surrounding the farm, was typical of the fraternal impact exerted by the brothers. For many years the brothers' chapel at the farm housed the first site of St. Pius X parish, with the brothers' chaplains serving as pastors.

In the 1990s, as no new men experienced in farming were coming to replace aging and infirm brothers, higher superiors decided to terminate regular full operations at the farm. Br. Donald was asked to remain, not only to be caretaker and supervisor of acreage leased to a local farmer, but to continue being an effective witness for the brothers to their ongoing spiritual presence among the people of the Granger area. Rugged as the steers raised and marketed by the brothers, strong as the intensity of the St. Jose Valley's summer heat and rain and the winter's snow and severe cold, Br. Donald, with his cheerful openness, exemplified the warm hospitality habitually shown by the brothers' community at the farm and the enviable professionalism so evident in their work.

Always conscious of his status as a religious, Br. Donald also represented the effectiveness of the farm as a ministry of the Brothers of Holy Cross. As the community's superior for many years, Br. Donald encouraged and supervised the prayerful, dedicated side of the brothers' lives. He showed unusual sensitivity to the needs and suggestions of others, and realized that his example as a religious and as a professional in farming contributed to the exceptional impact he and the other brothers made in Granger.

During the 47 years Br. Donald labored at the farm, the environs changed gradually but radically from vast rural farming acreage to largely upscale residential developments. Because of such men as Br. Donald, newcomers to Granger were quickly if quietly made aware of the charismatic spiritual leadership exhibited there by the Congregation of Holy Cross. Br. Donald possessed a penetrating gaze that pierced through to the inner character of an individual, helping to create community of neighbors, not only in Holy Cross, but also in the local church. His passing is a reminder of the reality of decreasing numbers of farms in the Granger vicinity, but it will also renew memories of the many brothers whose presence and involvement were, since the farm's establishment by Fr. Edward Sorin, a ministry to everyone. The reputation of the farm has never been anything but positive. The absence of the brothers now may perhaps be mistakenly seen as the termination of their influence. However, one has only to listen and observe to confirm that the spiritual and social bonds forged between the brothers community at St. Joseph's Farm and the general public in the Granger area, as well as farmers throughout the Midwest, are far too strong ever to be severed or forgotten. If anyone among the brothers has witnessed to this fact, it is Br. Donald Dunleavy. He will be greatly missed by all who knew him.

Because of the close relationship over the years between the farm and St. Pius X parish, and because Br. Donald's part in it for nearly half a century was so actively effective, his funeral will be celebrated at the parish church located at State Road 23 and Fir Road. Visitation will begin today in the church at 2 p.m., with a Mass of Christian Burial celebrated at 6:30 p.m. A Holy Cross community memorial service will take place at St. Joseph's Cemetery at Holy Cross Village. The Kaniewski Funeral Home is handling arrangements.