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Name: BROUWER, Gerard (Rev. Father)
Birth Date: 9 Jan 1894 Haarlemmermeer, Netherlands
Death Date: 7 Sep 1969 Muiden, Netherlands
First Date: 1922
Profession: Mill Hill Mission
Area: Kakamega
Book Reference: KAD, Hut
General Information:
Henry J. Koren, Spiritan East African Memorial, 1994: He entered the Congregation at Weert, the year after the founding in 1904 of that new junior seminary, made his vows at Louvain, Belgium, on October 3, 1913 and began his senior studies there. Sent to Rome to attend the Gregorian University, he earned a doctorate in theology and was ordained there on August 10, 1917. After a war time appointment of teaching at Weert, he received his assignment to the prefecture of North Katanga in what was then the Belgian Congo (Zate). He sailed to his destination in February 1920, and was stationed in Sangu Mongu. ln April 1923 he was transfened to the Bagamoyo vicariate, where he took charge of the school. Less than a year later, he had to go to the hospital in Zanzibar to be treated for illness. After leaving the hospital, he became director of the Matombo station, until in 1926 he went to lreland for the then customary month of recollection after ten years of service as a priest. He made his perpetual vows there at Kimmage. Transferred to the Vicariate of Zanzibar in October 1927, he served on the island itself, at Mangu and at Kalimoni in Kenya. ln 1933 he was retained in Holland for two years, which he spent in promotional work. On his return to the Bagamoyo vicariate in 1935, he became mission procurator at Morogoro and also pastor of the town parish. After Wortd War Two he served for six years as a military chaplain, stationed in lndonesia, Korea, Japan and Holland (1948-1954). When the Dutch Province began to establish itself in the central part of Brazil, he was assigned to this new venture and became pastor of a parish in Araujos, in the state of Minas Geras. ln 1963 at the age of 69 he retumed to Holland and spent his declining years as chaplain in a retirement home for the aged at Muiden. A man of great energy, endowed with an ebullient sense of humor and a keen business sense, he dedicated his talents to the service of the people entrusted to him, wherever he went.