A Study in Happiness

He was a combination of your grandpa, fishing buddy and lifelong hero, whose temperament ran from the magic of Arthur’s Merlin to the sternness of Attila the Hun.

Brother Andrew Cremer – a man with a natural ability to calm people, empathize with any perspective and arbitrate a just resolution for every issue. Born in Dubuque, Iowa, he joined the Marianists at the age of 16 and spent years in Marianist high schools in Peoria, East St. Louis, St. Louis and San Antonio.

Keeping up with all those boys kept Brother Andy on his toes – and refining his network of informants. As both principal and benevolent dictator, he enjoyed an amazing propensity for reeling in any prankster from a sea of angelic faces.

Cremer left his high school work in 1966 to return to St. Mary’s as director of the Marianist Faculty Residence, where he spread encouragement among 54 of his brothers. He also served as secretary-treasurer of the University’s Board of Trustees, on the Executive Council and on the St. Mary’s Alumni Association Board of Directors.

Retiring from the classroom in 1980 – after 14 years of steering thousands of students clear of using the adjective “nice” in their writing – he remained an avid detective-fiction buff and a faithful fisherman.

All in all, there was something amazingly gripping about the man. And, one afternoon, as we sat casting long shadows in the Quad, he let me in on just what that was. “I don’t think that I’ve ever been unhappy.”

Enough said.

Brother Andrew Cremer, S.M., died Aug. 19, 1992, at the age of 84. He was a Marianist for 67 years.