Fr. Hubert Blocker (1895-1972)

Father Hubert Blocker passed away October 18, 1972.

One of several vocations from “Wildcat” or St. Mary’s Parish, St. Benedict, Kan., Father Hubert did his education after grade school with the monks.  He professed first vows in 1919 and was ordained June 6, 1925.

After he earned a master’s in biology from the University of Iowa and later a doctorate from the University of Michigan in 1933, he served as chairman of the Department of Biology at St. Benedict’s College until 1952.  He resigned at that time because of poor health in the form of tinnitus, a cross he carried until his death of a heart attack.  He found that humming to himself eased the pain.

Father Hubert was a brilliant man who collected and classified 750 species of plants in Atchison County, Kansas.  He was a genius in constructing instruments to be used in the laboratories of the college.  He and Father Eugene Dehner spent any long hours filling needs for their department that a very small budget would not cover.

Often on a Saturday afternoon after lunch, his good friend and fellow naturalist, Father Cyprian Nordhus would head out north of the abbey and comb the woods for yet another specimen.

Father Hubert outside of the abbey.