Mass of Christian Burial will be Wednesday for Father Stanley Neiheisel, a retired Southwest Ohio priest whose career of more than 50 years included stints as principal at Fenwick High in Middletown and part-time teacher at Carroll High in Dayton.
The Rev. Neiheisel, 81, died Jan. 29. The native Cincinnatian completed his preparatory studies at St. Gregory Seminary in Cincinnati and studied theology at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary of the West. He earned his Master’s degree in education from Xavier University.
He was ordained to the priesthood in August 1960 at St. Peter in Chains Cathedral by Archbishop Karl J. Alter.
The Rev. Neiheisel’s assignments also included being an assistant at Resurrection Church in Dayton and assistant chaplain at Good Samaritan Hospital in Dayton in 1965. He was appointed acting principal of Carroll in May 1968, and in June of that year became an assistant at Ascension Parish in Kettering.
Fr. Neiheisel in June 1974 was appointed principal at Fenwick high and associate at St. Mary Parish, also in Middletown.
From 1978 until his retirement in July 2005, Fr. Neiheisel served several parishes in the Cincinnati area.
Visitation is 5-8 p.m. Tuesday at St. Stephen Church, in Cincinnati.
Cincinnati Archbishop, the Most Reverend Dennis M. Schnurr, will preside at the 10 a.m. Wednesday Mass at St. Stephen. A reception will follow immediately in Foundation Hall. Burial will be 3 p.m. at St. Aloysius Gonzaga Cemetery in Bridgetown.
On the 50th anniversary of his ordination, Father Neiheisel said: “When I look back on fifty years, I realize every day that I didn’t choose God, He chose me.”
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati is the 38th largest Catholic diocese in the country, with almost 500,000 Catholics in Southwest Ohio, and has the sixth largest network of Catholic schools in terms of enrollment. The 19-county territory includes 211 parishes and 111 Catholic primary and secondary schools.
