Father Lowell Fischer of Joliet diocese worked in Hawaii for almost 20 years

Father Lowell Edwin Fischer, a priest of the Diocese of Joliet, Ill., who worked in Hawaii for almost 20 years mostly as an associate of St. Michael Church in Waialua, died in Illinois on June 19. He was 82 and a priest for 52 years.

Father Fischer was born in Lake Koshkonong, Wis., in 1924. He was ordained for the Trappist order in Louisville, Ky., on May 8, 1954, and first resided at the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky.

He was an associate pastor and pastor for 13 years in the diocese of Joliet before coming to Hawaii on June 26, 1975, and served as a chaplain at St. Francis Hospital and Tripler Medical Center for one year.

He spent his second year in Hawaii, 1976-77, preaching in parishes to promote the Hawaii Catholic Herald.

In 1977, Father Fischer was named an associate pastor of St. Michael Parish in Waialua serving primarily at the parish’s mission at Waimea on Oahu’s north shore. He left Hawaii in 1993.