Fr. Dominic Gerlach, C.PP.S., died Saturday at 6 p.m. in Mercer County Community Hospital, Coldwater, Ohio. Fr. Gerlach, who was 92, had been in failing health in recent weeks in the infirmary at St. Charles Center, Carthagena, Ohio, where he made his home.

Fr. Gerlach was born on December 11, 1921 in Carthagena, Ohio, to Henry and Catherine (Fullenkamp) Gerlach. He entered the Missionaries of the Precious Blood in 1938 and was ordained a priest on May 18, 1950.

He studied history at St. Louis University in St. Louis, Mo., after his ordination, and was then assigned to Saint Joseph’s College in Rensselaer, Ind., which is sponsored by the Missionaries of the Precious Blood. He was a professor of history and German at the college for many years, and served as its archivist. He also held leadership positions within the Community, serving two terms as local director in the 1980s.

In recent years, he lived in retirement at St. Charles Center. His passion for history and research, and his love and commitment for his religious community and his faith, never flagged. Fr. Gerlach could review facts and from them find a historian’s trail to a narrative, said Fr. David Hoying, CPPS, who served as Fr. Gerlach’s assistant in the college archives while Fr. Hoying was a student at Saint Joseph’s

“I always found him to be very perceptive,” Fr. Hoying said. “He could look at the research to get to the reasons, and interpret the facts.” Fr. Gerlach had a great facility for the German language, particularly “low” German, which was spoken in his childhood home, and he helped families from his home territory interpret German documents while they were researching their own family histories.

A Mass of Christian burial will be celebrated on Wednesday, March 20, 2013, at St. Charles Center, with Fr. Larry Hemmelgarn, CPPS, presiding, with Fr. Hoying, C.PP.S., as homilist. Burial will follow in the Community cemetery.

Text and Photo courtesy of Cincinnati Province