"I hope to be remembered as one who serves.”

These words were written by Father Bob Berson before he died at age 78 from the complications of Parkinson’s disease March 5, 2003, in Cincinnati.

We Glenmarians knew Father Bob as a servant leader: one who put his natural talent for leadership, his gift of keen intelligence and his gentle firmness to work serving our U.S. home missions. He guided Glenmary through the challenging years of Vatican II, and he helped mold Glenmary into a missionary community for the future.

Father Bob led the men of Glenmary well for 14 years, first as superior general (1965-1971) and then again as president (1975-1983). Many of the things he initiated still serve us well today.

His greatest leadership challenge came from 1965-1971. The Second Vatican Council closed in 1965. A special Glenmary Chapter (1968-69) searched for connections between Father Bishop’s charism and the new forms of mission and community articulated by the Council. These were heady times.

Glenmarians came to this Chapter with enthusiasm. We stood toe-to-toe expressing heated opinions about the future of Glenmary. Father Bob had the consummate skill to keep this creative energy directed toward mission.

One of his lasting accomplishments is Glenmary’s continued commitment to ecumenical leadership. In the 1970s the ecumenical movement was just beginning among Catholics, but Father Bob ensured that it would become an integral part of how Glenmary understood its home mission ministry. Later, as a Deep South Regional Worker, he was tireless in trying to build bridges between Catholics and Southern Baptists.

Father Bob also recognized early on that Church ministry must be more open to the laity, and he always called on Glenmarians to open up opportunities for lay leadership. Under his leadership a lay volunteer program was formed for students to minister in our mission areas in the summer. He supported Group Seven, a group of lay people—married and single—who ministered mostly in Appalachia.

Closely tied to this commitment to lay ministry was his concern that lay people be given more opportunities to understand their faith. He started Glenmary’s Department of Pastoral Services to provide resources needed by missioners in the field to develop religious education programs, adult catechesis and effective parish councils.

Before collaboration became a buzz word, Father Bob, as president, collaborated. He began calling together Glenmarians from each mission area to advise him. This gathering became the General Assembly, an elected body which now meets twice a year and includes Glenmarians as well as coworkers.

Father Bob knew that missionary life can be all too lonely and that every missioner needs a support system. He fostered the concept of missioners gathering monthly with others in their mission district to share their ministry and their personal needs—gatherings which continue today.

He also supported what was a new concept at the time: a personnel director to support individual Glenmarians and represent them and their needs to the Glenmary Council.

Father Bob, with the help of then education director Father Ray Orlett, led the way in developing new approaches to member formation. He closed Glenmary’s Our Lady of the Fields Seminary in 1966 and sent brother and priest candidates off to educational institutions where they would receive a broad education and interact with lay students. The same year he took the bold step of closing the novitiate so it could be reshaped to meet the needs of the men of the 1970s and beyond.

“We have to keep our focus on mission,” he said again and again. To that end he regularly developed five- and 10-year plans for mission—and then reported on them annually at the Glenmary Congress.

When Father Jim Kelly came up with the idea for a research center to gather data and provide a context for Glenmary’s mission efforts, Father Bob became a strong advocate. After the Glenmary Research Center was approved by his Council in 1966, he took an active role in helping the director define areas for research.

Father Bob’s vision for mission developed out of his continued study of Karl Rahner and the other theologians who helped form the Church of Vatican II.

His openness to new ideas grew out of his instinct that the Church must remain flexible if it is to adjust to changing times. He greatly loved the Church while aware of its foibles. He knew history and knew the Church would survive despite the struggles of the day.

This man of uncommon wisdom, even in the grip of Parkinson’s, kept Glenmary looking to the future. His care and concern for others only increased as his own health failed. His courage in facing his limitations inspired hope in everyone around him.

This man of faith will continue to be remembered as one who did, indeed, serve.