One of Notre Dame's Founding Priests Dies

Rev. William Brinker, CSC, one of the founding priests of Notre Dame College Prep, a boys' Catholic high school in Niles, died Sunday at 93 years of age, the school reported. Fr. Brinker taught math and religion at the school, and even in recent years, tutored math.  

Funeral arrangements will be held at the University of Notre Dame, from which Brinker graduated in 1942.


Visitation 
Wednesday, October 24th 
2:00 - 3:00pm 
(Prayers at 2:30pm) 
Holy Cross House 
University of Notre Dame 
Notre Dame, IN 46556 

3:30 - 9:00pm 
(Wake Service at 7:30pm) 
Chapel of Moreau Seminary 
University of Notre Dame 

Mass of Christian Burial 
Thursday, October 25th 
3:30pm 
Basilica of the Sacred Heart 
University of Notre Dame 

Interment: Holy Cross Community Cemetery, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana 

LOCALLY: 

Memorial Mass at Notre Dame College Prep
Monday, October 29 
7:00 pm
Notre Dame College Prep Chapel
7655 West Dempster Street
Niles, Illinois 60714

The following biography appeared on the Notre Dame College Prep website: 

Fr. William Brinker CSC was born in Covington, Ky., on May 8, 1919. He attended St. Aloysius Elementary School there and St. Xavier High School Cincinnati before enrolling at the University of Notre Dame as a freshman in 1937.

He entered St. Joseph’s Novitiate in Rolling Prairie, Ind., in August 1939. He made his First Profession of Vows in 1940. After two years at Moreau Seminary he graduated from Notre Dame in 1942. He studied Theology for four years at Holy Cross College in Washington D.C., and was ordained a priest on June 24, 1946 at Sacred Heart at Notre Dame.

After Ordination he was assigned to teach at Holy Cross Seminary on the campus of Notre Dame from 1946-1955.

From 1955 to 1964 he was assigned to teach and perform other duties at Notre Dame High School in Niles, Ill. In 1964 he returned to Holy Cross Seminary, and in 1967 he was assigned to be the college and Career Counselor back at Notre Dame High School until he retired in 1992.

After 1992, he stayed on there as Counselor Emeritus and served as a tutor in the St. Andre Center and prayed daily in the school's chapel until 2007. He lived at Fatima House for one year in 2007 and then he moved to Holy Cross House, Notre Dame in 2008. Fr. Brinker assisted in parishes for weekends in the South Bend area and in parishes near Notre Dame High School. 

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