On the evening of November 6, 1998, our confrere, Brother Gene Cler died here at the abbey. He had been suffering with cancer since late summer. Br Gene was born in Pesotum, Illinois on May 2, 1925. After graduating from high school in 1943, he enlisted in the U.S. Marines and served in the South Pacific until the end of World War II.

Returning to civilian life, he was employed for a while at a tile factory in Florida, and then he found the work which would become his life’s passion – growing flowers. He was a grower for greenhouses in Terre Haute and Indianapolis before moving to Aberdeen, South Dakota. Having married in 1947, he was a widower by the time he and his four children moved to Dakota.

Br Gene entered the novitiate at Blue Cloud in December of 1980 and professed solemn vows on January 15, 1985. For several years he was our guestmaster. He was the refectorian until a few weeks before his death and for a brief time he was in charge of the abbey’s maintenance. And, always he was our greenhouse grower. He grew exquisite flowers to adorn our church and refectory. Guests were pleasantly surprised to find roses in their rooms and often they left here with a plant from Br Gene’s greenhouse. In the summer, the patio at the entrance to the monastery was arrayed with flowers. Summer was also the time when we enjoyed watching Br Gene fly a kite high above the abbey grounds. His kite was attached to a fishing rod and reel. He was a creative sort of person.

In recent years, Br Gene’s creativity turned to poetry. A book of his poems, Necessary Excesses, is a bestseller in our bookstore. He was a reader at our annual literary festival every October. Last month, in a weakened voice, he read one of his poems which had been printed as a broadside by his literary friends.

His funeral was held at Blue Cloud Abbey on November 9, 1998. Br Gene donated his body to the University of South Dakota School of Medicine. His ashes will eventually return to our cemetery. His spirit will live on in our memories. We ask the members of the Swiss-American Congregation and all other Benedictines to remember him at prayer.