Fr. William Kramer, CPPS, 94, died in Mercer County Joint Township Community Hospital at 6 a.m. on Sunday, March 2, 2014. He had been in failing health. A professor emeritus of chemistry from Saint Joseph’s College in Rensselaer, Ind., Fr. Kramer made his home at St. Charles Center in Carthagena, Ohio, in recent years.

He was born October 13, 1919, in Coldwater, Ohio, to Jacob and Theresa (Gels) Kramer. He entered the Society in 1933 and was ordained on December 10, 1944. Fr. Kramer was in education ministry for most of his life as a priest.

After his ordination, Fr. Kramer served as an assistant pastor at St. Mary Church in Centerville, Iowa. From 1945 to 1946 he taught at Brunnerdale, the Society’s high school seminary in Canton, Ohio. Fr. Kramer then studied chemistry in Switzerland, learning the language while he earned a doctoral degree there. He returned to the U.S. in 1953 and that fall, he became an instructor at Saint Joseph’s College in Rensselaer, Ind., where he remained for the rest of his academic career. He was also an associate editor of Philosophy Today. Fr. Kramer retired to St. Charles Center in Carthagena, Ohio, in 2000.

Fr. Kramer was a man of many gifts, “a Renaissance man,” said Fr. Timothy McFarland, CPPS, who taught with Fr. Kramer at Saint Joseph’s. “He was a chemist by training but was good at so many things,” especially music. He taught himself to build and tune organs, and with Fr. Larry Heiman, CPPS, reconstructed the organ at the college. They also directed the installation of the (now historic) Holtkamp organ at St. Charles Center.

“He was always taking on different projects here at the college, from constructing the pipe organ to painting the clock face high in the chapel tower,” Fr. McFarland said. He took on academic projects as well, and helped the college establish its renowned Core academic program.

“He was a quiet, humble man, and he was very dedicated to the college and to the CPPS,” Fr. McFarland said. “He did whatever he could to make each better.”

A Mass of Christian burial will be celebrated on Thursday, March 6, at 2 p.m. at St. Charles Center, with Fr. Larry Hemmelgarn, C.PP.S., presiding. Burial will follow in the Community cemetery.