
May Jesus, Divine Mercy, have Mercy on his Soul.

From our 2nd grade class at Our Lady of Grace School in Dearborn Heights through elementary school, high school  and two years of college at St. Bernard’s Seminary to 3 years at the St. Meinrad Major In southern Indiana, Fr. John and I were best friends.   I would often stop by the O’Keefe home onWest Parkway to play with our many classmates.  All told we went to school together for 18 years. 

We both had a super love of travel and in the summer before we were to enter the Mariannhill novitiate in Brighton, we made plans to tour the USA.  After circling the US to the tune of 14,000 miles later in two months we entered the Novitiate.  With travel still a strong desire we again  traveled to the states surrounding Colorado.  In 1966 Fr. John, confrère Fr. Andy Heier, and I drove to Alaska along the unpaved Allan Highway.

In 1967, as a Deacon, Fr. John  co-witnessed my marriage to the love of my life, Dorothy Emans and her two daughters.  After his ordination in 1968 we kind of went our separate ways, Fr. John to Germany and me teaching.  We lost track of one another until he surprised me at a 50th Ordination celebration. 

I followed him around the archdiocese of Detroit assignments and when he finally did “retire” we again got together on a fairly regular basis.  We were always at ease with one another and I count him as a dear lifelong friend.  My sincere condolences to Fr. John’s brothers and sisters.  I knew how close you all were when he finally returned home.

I will miss our fireside chats where we often reminisced about the school Teachers we had throughout the years.  Rest In Peace Fr. John.  The Good Lord knows you earned it.

It has taken me a full week to accept the fact that John is no longer with us, and still I struggle.  It was 1962 when he walked into my life at  Saint Meinrad Seminary in southern Indiana. Other than brothers and sisters, not many have had the joy and the treasure of John's friendship for so long. Preaching for his 25th and 50th anniversaries was a privilege for me no less than the honor of being present with all the O'Keefe's for the burial of first your father and then your mother. From St Meinrad to Munster, from my first home in Oklahoma to my present home in Florida, John has spread his wisdom and joy with the generosity and style that is pure "O'Keefe". I grieve with gratitude for all of you, his brothers, sisters, nieces, and nephews. You have always made me part of your family, and that was just one of John's many gifts to me. We bounced around in an old blue Volkswagen from Munster to Paris, to Munchen, to Rome. We watched tennis matches, the Tigers lose more than once. We watched Popes and Bishops, Presidents, and great Theologians, and we grew together as priests and friends, but even more as brothers. Now, I am both sad and glad, I wanted our retirement to last longer with more December visits to Naples, but grateful for all that has been. I treasure the 4th of July visits to Whitelake, all our sorrows and joys,  books and articles traded, outrages declared, and dreams and hopes sustained when there was no reason to do so other than the faith we shared. Rest now in peace, John. The rest of you O'Keefes must live on with joy and laughter. I love you. 

My father, Paul Blick, who passed away two months ago, too, had a longtime friendship with "Pater John", how we used to call him.
My father was a young teacher, just married, in the small German village where Pater John first served as a chaplain.
As my mother told me, Pater John lived in the Parish Home then with the old Pastor Hellkuhl, and in the weekends he used to visit my parent's home to relax and watch some football on TV. 
Pater John baptised me as a baby, and he kept in contact with our family, whenever it was possible to have a stop in Europe between Africa and America.
In 1996 Pater John invited the whole family to visit him in his Parish in Mozambique,  which was also a great and very interesting honeymoon journey for me and my husband. We took lots of Photos then. Some of these I was able to give back to Pater John, when we last met in Münster, in 2016, and you see them in the family album.
In the last years my father got ill more and more, but I am glad to say that John was always on his mind. If it would have been possible he had loved to come to America to celebrate his 50th anniversary of ordination.
I believe in the next world in god's presence the friends will meet again! Rest in peace, dear Father John!


Although I grew up in Our Lady of Grace parish (Maureen is a friend of my friend Fran), I didn't know Fr. O'Keefe until he served at my current parish, which was then St. Theodore in Westland.  I think it was at a Vocations Sunday when he stated "We have enough priests, what we need are more Shepherds."  I loved that and was filled with respect for this shepherd.  And when my own son was ordained a priest last year, I gave him a statue of a shepherd, and a copy of Fr. O'Keefe's words. 

Father John was a stabilizing force at St. Dunstan when really needed. He always loved going out to lunch. "Neil  where we going this week. "
Rest in peace Father

Uncle John,
I’ll never forget the first time I met you. You are my godfather but I hadn’t met you yet because you were overseas. You were already a priest.  You were living in a far away place at the time (Germany). You were like a mythical person in my mind.  You were larger than life.  And then, you told a fart joke. I couldn't stop laughing! You were equally pleased with your the joke and  I’ll never forget it.
We were lucky to have you in our life. I liked how my wife, kids, and I could ask religious questions of a priest who also had a PhD in Theology and just be open and honest about things with you.
I hope you are in a better place, a mythical place for for a larger than life person. A place where the Lions can win a playoff game.
- Brian

We will miss you Uncle John. Big family breakfasts and dinners won’t be the same without you. Who will get my kids to school on the mornings that I work? Who will feed the cats while Mom & Dad are in Florida? Who will know all the baseball facts Cooper throws out?   When my kids ask me complicated God questions, I won’t be able to tell them to ask Uncle John. I/we will miss you so much. Even though you were my Uncle by marriage, you were still my uncle. I am so happy to have had you in our lives all these years. Rest In Peace. 

I worked with Fr. John at St. Thomas in Westland as well as his helping us out at St Colette in Livonia. What a fine person he was, devoting his life in service to others.   I so enjoyed our conversations. He will be missed. 

I did not know John well as he was already an adult when I was still a kid. I remember seeing him around his mom’s house when he came home from the seminary. He was always friendly and smiled a lot. I think my strongest memory of John was his ordination at Our Lady of Grace. I remember him laying face down on the floor while a cardinal prayed over him.  This was a big deal as I had never seen a real live cardinal before.  I am glad John had a full and rich life. I know he will be missed by his family and friends. Rest In Peace John.

OBITUARY

Rev. John O'Keefe

August 10, 1941 – May 28, 2020

Elton Black & Son Funeral Home

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