Fr. Norbert Adelman, C.PP.S., died on Tuesday, April 5, 2016, in the infirmary at St. Charles Center, Carthagena, Ohio. Fr. Adelman, who was 94, had been in failing health.

He was born on February 2, 1922, in Peru, Ohio, to George and Bertha (Schlachter) Adelman. After serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II, he entered the Society in 1947 at Saint Joseph’s College in Rensselaer, Ind., and was ordained on June 2, 1956, at St. Charles.

Fr. Adelman was involved with many ministries in his nearly 60 years as a priest. In the years after his ordination, he served in a variety of parishes.  In 1966, he was named procurator (treasurer) at Brunnerdale, the Congregation’s high school seminary in Canton, Ohio. Fr. Adelman was appointed director of the Sorrowful Mother Shrine in Bellevue, Ohio, in 1972, and at the same time also served as pastor of St. Michael Church in Marywood, Ohio.

In 1978, Fr. Adelman was elected provincial director of the Cincinnati Province. He also served in the province’s senate. He returned to parish ministry in 1983, first at Good Shepherd Church in Frankfort, Ky.; then at St. Michael in Kalida, Ohio.

In 1987, he returned to the Sorrowful Mother Shrine as its director, and stayed there until 1994, when he was named associate pastor of the Church of the Nativity in Lake Mary, Fla.

Fr. Adelman retired to St. Charles in 2006.

Fr. Adelman was a natural leader who was often entrusted with leadership positions within the Community, said his friend and classmate, Fr. James Dugal, C.PP.S. “He had a real concern for people,” Fr. Dugal added. “He always made friends wherever he served.”

A Mass of Christian burial will be celebrated at 2 p.m. on Friday, April 8, 2016, at St. Charles Center, with Fr. Larry Hemmelgarn, C.PP.S., presiding. Fr. Ken Schnipke, C.PP.S., will be the homilist. Burial will follow in the Community cemetery.