Fr. Robert Kunisch, C.PP.S., died at 7:50 a.m. on Sunday, December 8, 2019, in the infirmary of St. Charles Center in Carthagena, Ohio, where he made his home. He had been in failing health recently. He was 89.

Fr. Kunisch was born in Toledo on August 19, 1930, to Alfred and Helen (McCann) Kunisch. He entered the Missionaries of the Precious Blood in 1944 in Brunnerdale, a high school seminary near Canton, Ohio, and was ordained on June 2, 1956.

Fr. Kunisch served the community in a variety of places and capacities:  Parish ministry, the St. Charles Seminary, the Calumet College of St. Joseph, and the Sorrowful Mother Shrine in Bellevue, Ohio.

In 2012, he retired to St. Charles Center, where he helped with parish ministry in the area as long as he was able. Even as his health declined, his mind remained sharp and clear, and he retained his lifelong ability with numbers; Fr. Kunisch served on the province’s finance committee until his death.

Fr. Kunisch knew from a young age that he wanted to be a priest. He answered God’s call and remained faithful to that call for over six decades. The life of a Missionary of the Precious Blood “is about service to God,” he once said. “Doing God’s work, wherever God might send you. It’s been a good life a very interesting life. You can’t get anything more interesting than to see the devotion of the people to God and the Blessed Mother.”