A Jump on Forever

Ours is a time of living on a breakneck treadmill, juggling competing stresses and surviving relentless anxieties. All the more reason, perhaps, for thinking about forever.

Father Charlie Neumann thought about it quite often.

“Forever? Oh yes,” he assured, with the gentlest of smiles. “That’s what life really is all about. Life is the most precious thing we have. We must treasure it, because we will be forever.

“Christ said, ‘I came that you might have life – and have it to the full.’ That’s why what we do now, in our life, is so tremendously important.”

Born in San Antonio in 1923, Charles W. Neumann Jr. professed his vows in 1940 before attending the Universities of Dayton and Fribourg. In 1959, Neumann came to St. Mary’s as director of the religious community and professor of classical languages. Three years later, he was appointed its sixth president.

Under his leadership, the school officially became coeducational, the music program produced excellent band directors and Reinbolt Hall was renovated. In town, Neumann served on many boards including the National Conference of Christian and Jews, Texas Association for Mental Health and San Antonio Public Library among others.

But his lifetime love was the study of Mariology.

“The Blessed Virgin Mary is the most inspiring example of faith and charity centered on God. Her only reason for living was to give Jesus to us,” he said with intentional slowness. “She is what the church is striving to become: the perfect disciple of Christ.”

Charlie Neumann went beyond thinking about forever. He got a jump on it.

The Rev. Charles Neumann, S.M., died May 9, 1997, at the age of 75. He was a Marianist for 57 years.