Published on Thursday, July 16, 2009, in The Citizen News. This archive corrects the spelling of names.

Longest Serving Pastor at St. Mary's remembered as 'close to God'

By Anne Waits, Citizen News Staff Writer

Around 100 people filed into St. Mary's Catholic Church in Edgefield Saturday to pay their final respects to a man described by many as a model of kindness and consideration. Father Robert William Ninedorf died last Tuesday at Edgefield County Hospital after a battle with cancer. He was 81.

Father Ninedorf was born in Buffalo, N.Y. and had two sisters, one of whom is now deceased. In the late 30s, the family moved to Houston, Texas where he spent his adolescence. "He was a typical little boy, we had fun," said his sister Marilyn Howard-Bertke. "He was the big brother, looking after me. But I think we all knew fairly early on that he was born to be what he was. That was his calling." They were raised Episcopalian, she said, with their father being very active in the church.

After graduation from high school, her brother joined the Marines and completed a two-year tour of duty. He then received a bachelor's degree from Baylor University and attended the Virginia Theological Seminary and was ordained an Episcopalian priest. Returning to the military, he became a Colonel and Chaplain for the 82nd Airborne of Fort Bragg, N.C. In the 1980s, he converted to Catholicism.

He came to Edgefield in 1991, serving as pastor of both St. Mary's in Edgefield and St. William's in Ward and also the Chaplain of the Federal Prison in Edgefield. "He was the longest serving pastor at St. Mary's," said Deacon John Klein. "He touched many people. He baptized many children and buried some of his parishioners. He was very close to God and he wished only the best for all those people he came in contact with."

Klein said Father Ninedorf retired at 75, but he was asked to continue to serve until this past year when he was named Pastor Emeritus. Norma Deao, church secretary who worked with him for all of the 18 years at St. Mary's, probably knew him as well as anyone. "He was very intelligent and was easy to work for," she said. "He knew so much about so many things."

A Civil War buff and model train enthusiast, he was also into chemistry, said his sister. "He had a microscope and did experiments," she said. "He was going to get into it more when he retired and then he became ill."

Father Ninedorf was a Lieutenant Colonel in the S.C. State Guard and until his illness, still attended meetings. He was a Fourth Degree Knight of Columbus with the Aiken Assembly 1074.

"We can take comfort in the fact that one day we'll see Robert again," said Msgr. Martin Laughlin, Diocese of Charleston, at the funeral mass Saturday.