Okopinski, Louis S., Rev.
(Aug. 24, 1914 - Dec. 9, 2006)
Cistercian OblateSt. Nazianz, Wisconsin, is a far different place than it was in 1940 when Louis S. Okopinski traveled from Milwaukee, where he was born to Polish immigrants, Lucian and Anna (Kolo) Okopinski, to study at the Salvatorian Seminary. The Catholic institution, 20 miles northwest of Sheboygan, in Manitowoc County, has no person on the grounds with a black habit and four knots in a cincture to remind him of his religious vows. It was a college and minor seminary for the Society of the Divine Savior from 1909 until the mid 1960s when it was closed. Before that it was a religious colony. It was turned over to the Salvatorians in 1896. In 1945, before the village was industrialized as it is now, Okopinski changed seminaries.
He completed his studies at St. Francis Seminary in Milwaukee County and was ordained on May 26, 1951, by the Archbishop of Milwaukee, the Most Reverend Moses E. Kiley. On June 27, 1951, he began his ministry at New Berlin, in Waukesha County, where the population skyrocketed from 5,334 to 38,220 in the next four decades. At the same time, Holy Apostles parish, where he was an assistant for four years, lost its German character. In the 14 years to come, he worked in three predominately Polish parishes in Milwaukee - St. Hyacinth's, June 1, 1955; SS. Cyril and Methodius, May 19, 1962; and St. Ignatius, July 12, 1962 - and on Oct. 7, 1969, he was appointed chaplain for the hospitals in and around Waukesha. He retired at the end of 1992.
He died at Ruth Hospice in Milwaukee and Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated at St. William Catholic Church, Waukesha, and burial took place at Our Lady of Spring Bank Cemetery in Sparta, Wisconsin.
From: Edward Pinkowski (2009)