This unassuming and apparently retiring brother is the very antithesis of his appearance. To describe him, the word dynamo would not be out of place. This man has raised millions of dollars to fund apostolic works in direct service to the aging, the frail elderly, and the ministries of the Midwest Province of the Brothers of Holy Cross.
Appleton, Wisconsin, is Br. William Geenen’s home town. In 1948 he left that city to become a Holy Cross Brother. His first few years were typical of those experienced by young brothers. He made his novitiate year, he did undergraduate studies at St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas, and he was assigned briefly to teach at St. Edward High School in Lakewood, Ohio, and St. Edward’s High School, Austin, Texas, before going to Gilmour Academy in Gates Mills, Ohio. It was there he spent the 20 years between 1953 and 1973 as a faculty member, then principal, and finally director of admissions.
During those 20 years he did graduate studies as well at Loyola U. in Chicago and at the University of So. Carolina.
In the springtime of 1973, on a student recruiting trip to Florida for Gilmour Academy, Br. William encountered, providentially, people and circumstances that led to his requesting permission from the provincial to return to Florida full time in the fall to begin serving, in some tangible but as yet undetermined way, the numerous retirees congregating in the Sarasota area, for whom, he observed, there were few if any programs of activities, health care or ongoing education. He sensed their loneliness and felt he could do something about responding to their needs.
And he did. Starting out a virtual stranger, living in a parish rectory with only $79 to his name, with a donated abandoned garage as a base of activity, he chanced upon a recently retired government employee from Washington, D.C., looking for some way to keep busy and be of service. Br. William explained his goal to Ms. Molleen Pust, and she at once joined the project as an administrative assistant. She has been with the Centers ever since. From that point on, through many difficult times, but with shining moments that confirmed the obvious reality of God’s blessing on Br. William’s dream, the Senior Friendship Centers, Inc., took shape and became what today constitutes a magnificent program of multiple services to the aging, with centers in Sarasota and Venice, and branches in other locations in southwest Florida, including Fort Myers and Naples.
One especially valuable service is the brand new multi-million health center in Sarasota that uses exclusively the volunteered skills of retired doctors, dentists, nurses, technicians, and pharmacists to provide health care to the elderly who do not have the funds to provide for it themselves. A second is the Living Room, a day care program for Alzheimer patients whose relatives need relief during the work day.
Br. William has conquered any reticence or natural reluctance that might have characterized him and has boldly sought not only financial assistance but volunteer help in launching and developing his program. Today the various components of the Friendship Centers employ some 200 full time workers and 1200 volunteers, including those who transport persons from gate to gate at the Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport and who staff the popular Brother William Geenen Welcome Center in the departure gate area of the airport.
Br. William has worked with governors and national legislators on improving the situation of the elderly in general, and has been available for consultation with governmental and social leaders in many states regarding the origin and purpose of the Senior Friendship Centers, Inc., and what it would require for similar gerontological programs to be initiated in other states.
Elected provincial of the Midwest Province in 1994, Br. William took a six-year leave of absence from his Florida work and devoted himself not only to the ordinary task of supervising the community life and apostolates of over 220 religious brothers under his care, but to the establishment of a new ministry for the province on its 100-acre property at Notre Dame, one that would take advantage of unused space to build up what was to be known as The Holy Cross Village at Notre Dame, an intergenerational community comprised of brothers and laity who would share mutual interests and the common mission of being of service to one another and to others while enjoying the benefits, particularly the spiritual ones, connected with the brothers’ lives and ministries on the grounds. Holy Cross College is one such ministry, as are the administrative components of the Midwest Province of brothers and of the Indiana Province of priests and brothers, plus the health care facilities of the province.
This project was ambitious from the start and involved elements of risk in beginning such a substantial work even as brothers were aging and retiring in greater numbers. But it was to take advantage of the very qualities that ripen in such individuals in their later years that the Village was envisioned, as well as to provide health and residential services to both brothers and others. As of now, the Village’s beautiful campus has grown to the full extent of Phase One’s limits–some twenty-five villas and 40 to 50 residents-and shortly work will begin on the planning for Phase Two. Br. William returned to Florida in 2000, having seen the project well under way, but he retains an abiding interest in its progress. The years of fund raising and planning connected with it assure that.
A man of action housed in an unprepossessing exterior describes Br. William and his proven record of apostolic dedication and accomplishment. And he’s not finished yet. Upon completion of the health care building in Sarasota last spring, Br. William began searching for new horizons to explore and exploit for the welfare of the aging in southwest Florida.
