News

Norbertine remembered for love of art

By Jeff Kurowski
Compass Assistant Editor

DE PERE -- Always willing to help is how fellow Norbertines describe Fr. Donald Claude Noel, who died Nov. 21.

Norbertine Fr. Tom Meulemans, abbey mission procurator, regularly called on Fr. Noel to speak about the missions in parishes throughout the United States.

"The nature of my job is to schedule dates in dioceses to preach about the mission work of Norbertines," said Fr. Meulemans. "As mission procurator, I do the bulk of the preaching, but some years we've had up to 150 different places to go. I try to get other Norbertines involved. Fr. Noel was always willing to do it if he wasn't tied up with something. He would even try to change his schedule to help. He gave himself to the job. He genuinely enjoyed doing it. I looked back at my notes and, over a six-year period, he once did 77 different appeals."

Supporting the missions was one of several ministries for Fr. Noel, who was ordained to the priesthood on Sept. 2, 1959. He served as a librarian and media director in Norbertine high schools in Green Bay (Premontre), De Pere (Abbott Pennings) and Philadelphia, at the University of Notre Dame and Northwestern Michigan College. He also served as associate pastor at St. Willebrord Parish, Chicago, and was a faculty member in the art department at the parish high school.

Art was among Fr. Noel's passions. In 1983, he opened a studio on Main Street in Green Bay, where he specialized in figurative sculptures. He later moved his Open Sea Sculpture Studio to St. Norbert Abbey.

Fr. Noel took a historical approach to sculpting. In 1987, he began designing a statue of Jesuit Fr. Claude Jean Allouez, who founded St. Francis Xavier mission in De Pere in 1671. For forensic sculpting accuracy, Fr. Noel received permission to exhume the remains of Fr. Allouez, who is buried in Niles, Mich. He put the project on hold while seeking funds.

In 2001, he completed a facial reconstruction based on the skull of St. Norbert of Xanten. He began the process of reconstructing St. Norbert in May of 1999 when he visited his tomb at Strahov Abbey in Prague, Czech Republic. St. Norbert's skull was placed on the main altar so Fr. Noel could measure it and reconstruct a copy in clay. He used Japanese calipers to record 55 measurements of the skull.

Fr. Noel's interest in art began during childhood. He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago. As an adult, he studied in Mexico, Canada, Italy, Yugoslavia and France.

Fr. Noel, a graduate of St. Norbert College and the University of Wisconsin, was also an author. He published a collection of 64 biographies of people who influenced Green Bay, De Pere and the Midwest from the St. Lawrence River through the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico from 1634 to 1734.

Participating in a social experiment, inspired by John Howard Griffin's 1961 book "Black Like Me," provided perspective for Fr. Noel. The priest sought deeply authentic experiences to make himself more available to people, said Fr. Meulemans.

"He liked to absorb himself in his work," he said. "He wasn't afraid of walking on a different street to go beyond the typical Catholic life."

Norbertine Br. Steve Herro, social concerns director for the Green Bay Diocese, said he will remember Fr. Noel as a "very selfless man."

"We lived together at one time," he said. "I was moving down to Jackson (Miss.) and needed somebody to drive the van back. He said, 'I'll do it.' He drove down with me and drove the van back. He liked helping people. He often drove to Fond du Lac on Sunday nights to celebrate Mass at Marian College.

"He also had an uncanny ability to remember things about you," he added. "He would store it in his mind and ask you about a brother or sister. He cared about people."

Fr. Noel was born on Aug. 2, 1930 in Blue Island, Ill. to Peter and Pauline (Derdzinski) Korzenecki. Assumption BVM, Chicago, was his home parish.

Surviving are a sister, Margaret Matson; a brother, Gerald (Virginia); a sister-in-law, Christine; brother-in-law, Frank Groszek; and the Norbertine Community.

He was preceded in death by his parents; two sisters, Loretta Groszek and Sr. Edna; three brothers, Thomas, Irwin and Peter.

The funeral Mass was celebrated on Nov. 25 in the Abbey Church. Norbertine Abbot Gary Neville presided. Burial was in the abbey cemetery.