1932 – 1964 (September 10)
Robert Francis Hemler, son of George Hemler and Mary Fern Hoffheins, was born on May 23, 1932, in McSherrystown, Pennsylvania. He received his education in the parochial schools there, and after graduating from Delone Catholic High School, entered Villanova College in 1951 as a lay student. On October 15, 1952, he was received into the novitiate of Our Mother of Good Counsel, New Hamburg, New York, and professed simple vows on October 16, 1953. He graduated from Villanova in June, 1955, and was solemnly professed on October 16, 1956. He was ordained to the priesthood in the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC, on June 7, 1958, by Bishop McNamara.
Father Hemler was assigned to Archbishop Carroll High School in Washington, D.C. in August, 1959. In October of the same year, he was reassigned to Monsignor Bonner High School in Drexel Hill, PA where he taught history and was later named assistant to the principal as director of sophomore studies. In 1960 he was awarded an M.A. in history from Villanova University.
Father Hemler was 32 when he died on September 10, 1964 in Lankenau Hospital in Overbrook, PA after undergoing a very serious and rare heart operation from which he seemed to be recovering. His brother, Rev. Thomas Hemler of the Harrisburg Diocese, was celebrant of the Requiem Mass. A second Mass was held on September 14, 1964 at Monsignor Bonner High School. Burial was in the Community Cemetery at Villanova.
