Robert Warpinski 

Bob’s is one of the most familiar faces around St. Bernard, given his long association with the parish, his being employed as Administrative Assistant for about the past ten years and his considerable involvement in the life of the parish community, including the Knights of Columbus.  Though not quite a charter member of the parish, Bob and his family came to the St. Bernard area and became a part of the parish shortly after it began operation back in 1957.  Prior to that he had been teaching at a Door County High School in the area of history, social studies and civics.  He began teaching in a similar fashion at Preble High School in 1957 and also dabbled a bit in foreign languages--German and Russian.  He received a Masters from Marquette University in Milwaukee and has done graduate work at numerous other universities such as Northwestern and several campuses of the UW system.

 

Bob joined the Knights of Columbus when the Council began at St. Bernard in 1990 and is a charter member of Council 10243.  He recalls some of the earliest meetings of the Council at a time when the Knights were still kicking around the idea of a calendar raffle as a fund raiser.  That never really got off the ground because there seemed to be too much competition from other churches and organizations which were doing the same thing.  Bob has remained a First Degree member of the Knights since he joined the Council and has the distinction of being the ‘longest-lasting First Degree member’ of Council 10243.

 

The average day for Bob is sometimes totally occupied with financial matters.  He approves purchases, sees that bills are paid and in general keeps track of the business side of the parish operation.  He also oversees personnel and insures that publications such as the weekly bulletin get out on time.  He’s also involved in major financial affairs such as the Capital Campaign of recent years and other fund-raising activities of the parish.  A large part of his job is planning, trying to decide how funds can be spent based on pledges in the “joyful giving” program.  While some seventy percent of the parish members have pledged contributions, he is trying to get members to aim for a contribution of three percent of their income.

 

In his time at St. Bernard, Bob has been a part of the finance committee, board of education, parish council, Holy Name Society, lectors, ushers, altar server and cub scouts--just to name a few.  His current work for the parish not only involves most of the day but numerous evenings as well.  He also served as chairman of the picnic committee for fifteen years.  He also has worked in real estate and served in the United States Air Force.  When asked what he likes to do to relax, he says “Go look at my back yard.”  He enjoys keeping his yard in great shape and relaxes in that fashion.  He and his wife, Lucille, have been married for 43 years now and have seven children, all of whom are in a profession.  Looking back on his life, Bob is proud to see his long, forty year history with St. Bernard Parish.   The parish community has been a big part of his life and he is justly proud of the contribution he made to its development.

 

August 1997