Fr. Edmund Pusch (1889-1968)
Father Peter Beckman in Kansas Monks lists the three monks who served Abbot Martin Veth his entire time as abbot. They were Prior Gerard Heinz, Subprior Bonaventure Schwinn and Procurator (business manager) Edmund Pusch. These men helped Abbot Martin fulfill his dream of inculcating a genuine monastic discipline and observance for the community, astute management of resources while building the new Abbey on the hill above the Missouri River. Father Edmund managed the building since there was no outside contractor and managed the finances before the stock market crash of October 29, 1929, and during the Great Depression that followed, when construction on the new Abbey ceased. He was business manager for twenty-one years.
Father Edmund was born to a life of rural poverty in Claflin, Kan., came to Atchison for high school, and became a monk July 2, 1913. He did his studies for the priesthood at St. Vincent Archabbey, Latrobe, Pa.
After leaving the business office at the abbey, he was pastor in Burlington, Iowa, for six years and later was at Sts. Peter and Paul, Seneca, for six years until 1955. There he built a high school in the face of some difficulties.
In 1955 he began a long and happy tenure as chaplain to the Benedictine Sisters then at Nauvoo, Ill. Father Edmund had known hard times as a youth and as a professed monk and priest. He met them and prevailed.
Father Edmund Pusch passed away November 19, 1968.
