 Br. Norbert Dale Fihn, OP
Brother Norbert was born in LaGrande, Oregon and joined the Western Dominicans as a
cooperator brother in 1962. His many
organizational skills made him a valuable assistant to several Priors Provincial of the
Western Province, and the Dominican Laity flourished under his direction from 1990 to
1994, but Norbert was best known as a teacher, and teaching remained his first love
through his religious life.
From 1968 until 1971, and again from 1976 until 1981, first
as a teacher and later as principal, Norbert was a familiar face at the Western
Dominicans’ Daniel Murphy High School in Los Angeles. He also taught in Vallejo, San
Diego, Santa Ana, and at St. Dominic School in Eagle Rock.
Brother Norbert was ordained deacon in 1987, while working at Holy Rosary Parish,
the Dominicans’ church in Antioch, California. The
following year he was assigned to Holy Family Cathedral in Anchorage, where he directed
the parish’s baptismal and marriage preparation programs and served as an assistant
to Archbishop Francis Hurley.
In 1990, Brother Norbert joined the Dominican community at St. Mary’s College in
Moraga, California, and taught in the college’s Great Books Seminar and Extended
Education Division. Although he generally led
seminars in Greek and Roman thought at St. Mary’s, Norbert most admired Geoffrey
Chaucer, the subject of his graduate study at the University of San Diego.
Brother Norbert died May 30, 1994. At the
Office of the Dead at St. Albert’s, on June 1st,
Anne Regan, president of the Oakland chapter of the Dominican Laity, expressed thanks for
the loving and challenging service Norbert offered the lay Dominicans during his term as
Promoter. Br. John Adams delivered the eulogy,
and spoke of Norbert’s prayerful patience and resignation during the days he spent at
Siena House. Fr. David Bello preached the
funeral homily the following morning, at Holy Rosary Parish in Antioch. He, too, recalled Norbert’s gentle patience in
his last days.
--Reginald Martin, O.P |
