Br. Walter Landwher (1913-1999)

Brother Walter Landwher passed away February 5, 1999.

Brother Walter was a tall person, probably topping out at 6’4”.  His room on ground floor was too small so he took out the wall to the next small room to make one that was comfortable for him.  He built himself an extra long bed as well.  His heart was as large as his body was tall.

After some hesitation and a lengthy visit with a confrere toward the end of his novitiate he decided to make first vows September 12, 1934.  From that day to leave the community was not an option.  He worked on the Abbey farms, was a truck driver, chauffeur (he could drive to the airport blindfolded), and teacher of driver’s education to the Mexican Sisters, who cooked for the monks.  But most of all he was known as a carpenter/cabinet maker.

In that capacity he built the tables still in use in the Abbey refectory, the main altar in the former choir chapel, now in the St. Joseph’s Chapel – on which the carving was done by Brother Emmanuel Perez – and countless desks and lockers for St. Benedict’s College.  He with the help of many confreres carried the Abbey Church Pews to the Carpenter Shop where he and a couple of other monks refinished the pews and put them back in place.  Brother Walter loved to fish and taught some of the monks the art of fly-fishing.  He was into the CB radio craze being known as “Sawdust.”  Brother Walter was plagued by congestive heart failure in his later years. 

He remained close to his sister, Isabelle Landwher and to his brother Father William Landwher of the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas.