Biernatzki, William E. (Brother)

Let us pray in thanksgiving for the life of Br. William E. Biernatzki, SJ, who died on Saturday, April 8, 2017, at Froedtert Hospital in Milwaukee, Wis. He was 85 years old and a Jesuit for 59 years.

Born in Niles, Mich., on December 3, 1931, Bill attended grade school in Michigan and high school in Iowa. He enrolled at Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa, served in the US Army in Korea for several years, and spent a semester at Marquette University in Milwaukee before entering the Society of Jesus at the Oshkosh Jesuit Novitiate on August 25, 1957. After first studies, Bill returned to Korea for regency (1962–64). In 1967, he earned a PhD in anthropology and sociology from Saint Louis University. Bill next studied theology for two years but chose not to proceed to ordination. Instead, he became a Jesuit brother and for the rest of his life served the Church and the Society as a Jesuit social scientist. He did tertianship in Japan and professed his final vows in Korea on September 8, 1979. Much of Bill’s active life was spent in Korea. He taught and did research at Sogang University in Seoul from 1968 to 1989, during the exciting years when the Korean Mission was growing into a full province of the Society and Sogang University was changing from a small college into a major university. After 1989, Bill was associated with the Center for the Study of Communication and Culture in London (1989–2003) and St. Louis (1993–2007). In St. Louis, he also worked with the Institute of Jesuit Sources. In 2007, failing health led to Bill’s moving to the St. Camillus Jesuit Community in Wauwatosa, Wis.

Bill was a quiet person of a scholarly temperament, a good Jesuit who worked hard all his life, and a trained anthropologist who spent most of his years in the Society in cultures quite different from his own. He adjusted patiently to the physical limitations of old age and was ready when the Lord called him home.

VISITATION
Monday, April 17, 2017
6 p.m.
St. Camillus Jesuit Community
Second Floor Round Chapel
10100 West Bluemound Road
Wauwatosa, WI 53226

FUNERAL MASS
Monday, April 17, 2017
7 p.m.
St. Camillus Jesuit Community
Second Floor Round Chapel
10100 West Bluemound Road
Wauwatosa, WI 53226