Fr. Alfred Koestner (1912-1998)
One of several vocations from St. John’s Burlington, Iowa, Father Alfred came to St. Benedicts for his high school and college. He became a member of the community by making his first profession June 15, 1933, and was ordained June 3, 1939. In 1937, then Frater Alfred, along with Fraters Eugene Dehner, Timothy Fry, and Albert Haverkamp founded Camp St. Maur whose motto was, “Sun and air for your son and heir!” It was open for over 50 years. It was said the Abbot Martin Veth who gave the permission to open the camp, held the Four “B” philosophy of camping: Boy, Ball, Bat, and Breviary.”
Father Alfred volunteered to teach mathematics at the San Beda College in Manila, Philippines. He also earned a Master’s in Science at the University of Santo Tomás. War began on Dec. 7, 1941, and Alfred was interned by the Japanese in the Los Baños camp near Manila in January 1942. Conditions there were horrendous where the prisoners were driven to eating dogs, rats or nearly anything that came along. Part of the bread ration, though possibly moldy, was stored for the next day. On February 23, 1945, Father Alfred and the other prisoners were freed by American troops just prior to being massacred by the retreating Japanese.
When he returned to the United States he joined a few of our monks engaged in teaching in the school at Tepeyac near Mexico City, Mexico.
He once rode a motorcycle all the way from there to Atchison. He was a daring man who once walked, as a cleric, across the frozen Missouri River. Abbot Martin frowned on such behavior and ended it. He later retuned to work in rural Kansas parishes at St. Mary’s, Purcell; St. Vincent, Severance; and St. Benedict’s, Bendena. In 1950 he began a long association with St. James, Wetmore, spent a year at Kelly and then returned to Wetmore for approximately 37 years. Father Alfred retired from there and died at the Abbey.
Father Alfred loved all things outdoors, the crops, hunting birds and small game, fishing and later smoking the catfish, buffalo, or carp. His smoker was an old refrigerator and the temperature controls a wedge in the door. Father Alfred brought baggies of the smoked fish to the abbey frequently, especially for retreats. He once recovered from a terrible car accident and weeks of rehabilitation only to return to the people of Wetmore. Father Alfred was a loyal Chaplain to the Knights of Columbus wherever he was pastor.