St Fidelis Seminary - Skullcap Yearbook (Herman, PA)

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SILVER SAGE OSCAR MILLER For many years now, men both young and old, have left Saint Fidelis with varied degrees of sorrow or gladness. All, likewise, have taken leave with varying degrees of knowledge. Everyone, though, who has ever passed through the cloistered life of Saint Fidelis has parted from his Alma Mater with a deeper love and a more profound respect for all the brown-robed sons of Saint Francis. And in a very particular sense, all the alumni of S. F. S. since 1909 have gone forth with a fond admiration of Father Benno Hagenmiller. All who have heard the voice of fame proclaiming Saint Fidelis' past and present high curricular standards know that a certain professor who has taught there for thirty-three years has a widely diversitied culture. Of even more interest to students than this culture is the understanding and the gentle philosophy with which Father salves all the troubles of his students. Fr. Benno has wielded the preceptorial rod in many branches: painting, French, shorthand, German, Greek, Physics, Astronomy, Surveying, Chemistry, and the numerous divisions of Euclid's esoteric mathematics. Sak ein Knab' ein Roeslein stehnf' This is not a hint that Father Benno knew Goethe, but Father Benno has introduced the German Shakespear to numberless coteries of students. With the beauties of German he has antidoted quite a few Greek students back from nervous breakdowns. Many interesting incidents have played a part in Father Benno's classes. Father Benno, through his many years of work, has preserved an indomitable spirit of good humor. He not only pulls his own jokes, C good ones, tooj but he knows how to laugh at the jokes of others. Speaking of Father Benno's laugh, I am reminded of his smile. It really does the heart good when one beholds Father Benno's solemn seraphic face melt into a full-blown smile. Getting back to Father Benno in the classroom, I am reminded of an interesting and somewhat humorous incident which occurred, as mildewed tradition has it, several years ago in a Chemistry class. Father Benno was explaining the mechanism of a fire extinguisher of the soda water and sulphuric acid type. He constructed a working model, and told the class what would happen when the contraption was overturned. To prove the scientific laws involved, Fr. Benno had a tire built on a large metal platter. A small container of sulphuric acid was placed inside the bottle of soda water, yet it was not in Contact with the water. Closing the midget apparatus with a cork, Fr. Benno aimed the nozzle at the now blazing fire and turned his handicraft over. A slight explosion j arred the room, the soda water and acid solution rained down on all the attentive tyro-chemists, but the fire blazed on. Ever alert, Fr. Benno snatched the fiery plate, and hurled it and its contents out an open window. Then he turned, smiled, lifted up a blistered linger, and in a solemn voice asked: Is there a doctor in the house? Beyond the telling drudgery of classwork, Father's humor has weathered the blasting winds of myriad mission days. Father Benno organized and built The Guardian Angel Church in a near-by hamlet, and for nine years he held the pastorate of this mission. For twenty-two years he took care of St. Joseph's, Cabot, and of St. Mary's, West Winfield, for thirty-two years. Father, in need of conveyance to and from his parishes, has used all inventions that the machine industry has put on

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E H it M i 2 3 E. Ei Pi E

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the market. Way back when-Father used a bicycle. Then came a motorized unit, which he quickly adopted and attached to his bicycle, and Father Benno went to his flock on a motor-bicycle. Since those bicycle days, Father has had about seven auto- mobiles. At present, he is the proud owner of a '41 two-door Chevrolet sedan- the best car on Capuchin boulevard. Father Benno, though a man with little time to spare, has several hobbies with which he occupies those superfluous few minutes. These are the taking and collecting of photographs, painting, and an intimate fellowship with the stars. Father has decorated his churchespersonally, and has furnished the monastery choir with two beautiful paintings of Saint Francis in Ecstasy , and the other of the Renunciation of Saint Francis . Concerning his comradeship with the stars, Fr. Benno is all-out . Nights on which Father has little to do, and which are at the same time clear enough to view the astral bodies, are few and far between. However, when one of these nights is about to be born. Father Benno is seen at Father Director's door, getting permission for several star-minded students to join him in a rendezvous at his observatory. This observatory is the only such building studding and beautifying the land- scape of the hamlet of Herman. With a four-inch refractory telescope, Father Benno and his ardent disciples have ransacked the heavens over the course of ten years for some new heavenly body, and have brushed shoulders, in their celestial perusals, with all the well known and easily recognized ones. Phenomena in the skies usually see a silver-haired star-gazer praying for clear skies, and these prayers are usually answered by someone upstairs . Father's observatory is kept trim by a volunteer crew of seniors, supervised and managed in general by Father himself. As a professor and regent of the classroom, Father has no peerg his work as an Alter Christus only the Original can judge. The influence of Father Benno is a part of the institution here at Herman. From knowing Father and living with him for years, I feel assured that entrance into Heaven will be the easier because of my association with Father Benno,-astronomer, chemist, physicist, linguist, mathemati- cian, surveyor, Capuchin, and priest. 73? FR. BENNO AT WORK 1AT LEISURE