February 2, 1980
Father Joseph Oenbrink
Father Oenbrink was born in Cincinnati, OH on February 6, 1893. He attended St. Xavier College in Cincinnati, OH and St. John Seminary in Little Rock, AR where he was ordained for the Diocese of Wichita by Bishop John Morris on May 29, 1924. He worked for three years at St. Mary Parish in Newton as an assistant before becoming pastor at Cordia with La Crosse as a mission. Later assignments were as chaplain of Mercy Hospital in Independence with Liberty as a mission and as pastor in Sitka and Ashland, Greenbush, Iola, and Conway Springs. In 1948 he was assigned to Halstead Hospital where he remained until he retired in a house in Colwich, Kansas in 1966. Bishop Maloney was the celebrant of Father Oenbrink’s funeral at Sacred Heart Church in Colwich. He was buried at Resurrection Cemetery in Wichita.