| CURIA GENERALIZIA MARIANISTI Rome, October 21, 2004 Death Notice No. 27 (To all Unit Administrations) The Province of the United States of America recommends to our fraternal prayers our dear Brother, JOHN J. JANSEN, who died in the service of the Blessed Virgin Mary on October 9, 2004, in Dayton, Ohio, in the 89th year of his age and the 72nd year of his religious profession. John Jansen was born on April 10, 1916, in Brooklyn, New York., to John and Teresa Schoenfelder Jansen. He grew up in the borough of Brooklyn with his sisters, Teresa and Frances, and his brother, Joseph. Brother John attended St. Barbara’s Elementary School in Brooklyn and the Marianist Preparatory School in Beacon, New York. In 1932, he entered the novitiate at Mount St. John in Dayton – professing his first vows on August 15, 1933, and his perpetual vows on August 9, 1937. Two of his cousins also joined the Marianists: Father Anthony Jansen, who serves in Lusaka, Zambia, and the late Brother Joseph Jansen. Brother John received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Dayton and a master’s degree and doctorate from The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. He pursued graduate studies in chemistry at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and in management at Ohio State University in Columbus, Rose College in Oklahoma City and Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton. Fellow brothers said his love of learning was boundless. He was an admired and respected teacher, administrator and leader. Brother John taught in elementary, secondary, undergraduate and graduate schools: Holy Rosary in Dayton, Cathedral Latin High School in Cleveland, Chaminade High School in Dayton and the University of Dayton. He briefly acted as principal of Chaminade High School. In the classroom, Brother John was described as engaging, entertaining and down to earth. “He was a poet and a dreamer; a pragmatist and a humorist,” said former student Father Gene Contadino. “He wasn’t afraid to laugh in class and make personal comments about himself that let us know he didn’t stand above us. He abused the King’s English with grunts and groans and run-on sentences, but I was glued to his content because I knew he was in touch with the world I was living in.” “Brother John was dramatic to his fingertips – he was theater in himself,” said fellow brother and longtime friend Father Norbert Burns. “Give him a challenge and each time he’d come up with something different, something new.” In the former Cincinnati Province, Brother John served as Assistant Provincial/Inspector throughout the 1960s. He also served as the Province’s vocation director, president of Bergamo Center for Lifelong Learning at Mount St. John in Dayton, project director of the Law Enforcement Administration for the Southern Ohio Conference on Higher Education, and project director for educational programs at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton. “I called him an energetic, feisty saint,” Father Norbert said. “Brother John should be remembered for his intelligence, humanity, compassion and faith.” Brother John died from complications associated with congestive heart
failure, renal failure and emphysema. May he rest in peace.
|