Fr. NusbaumBut most of all, he was a friend.
“Most people around here would call him a saint. He was just a genuine person. It’s not that he couldn’t put his foot down, but he was a very affectionate person,” said Hazel Destatte, pastoral associate at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish in Temperance, where Fr. Nusbaum served as pastor from 2004-08. “He tried to understand all sides of parish life.”
Fr. Nusbaum died Nov. 9 at the age of 83.
Growing up on a family farm in Temperance, Fr. Nusbaum was ordained at age 17 for the Oblates of Mary Immaculate in Roviano, Italy, on July 12, 1961. He was incardinated into the Diocese of Albany in 1972, and spent 38 years as professor of history at Mount St. Mary’s University in Emmettsburg, Md.
Fr. Nusbaum returned to the Archdiocese of Detroit in retirement, serving at St. Elizabeth Parish in Wyandotte (2003-04) and then as pastor of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, his hometown parish.
In 2008, Fr. Nusbaum served as director of the archdiocese’s Department of Evangelization, Catechesis and Schools, and later as spiritual director at Sacred Heart Major Seminary.
“He was caring and very loving,” Destatte said. “The Nusbaum family is well known in the area. So it was easy because people knew who he was, but he related very well. He was very friendly, and had no problem going to your house for dinner. He was just one of these guys who loved everybody.”
Fr. Nusbaum loved to play pinochle and euchre, and was an accomplished poet, publishing several essays.
Fr. Nusbaum always made his parishioners a priority, offering advice, counsel and a listening ear to anyone who stopped at his door, Destette said.
It was Fr. Nusbaum who encouraged Destette’s daughter to investigate, and eventually attend, Mount St. Mary’s. When she decided to get married at the Maryland university last year, he flew out to do the wedding.
“He counseled her to go there, and she’ll never regret it,” Destatte said.
Earlier in his ministry, Fr. Nusbaum served as a chaplain in the United States military and as a counselor for Alcoholics Anonymous — a ministry the priest took so seriously he refused to touch a drink himself.
“He said if he was going to be counseling people with addictions, he could not in fairness give in to that,” Destatte said.
“If you talk to anybody, they have high praise for him. I just can’t say enough about him.”
Fr. Nusbaum’s funeral Mass will take place at 11 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 16, at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish in Temperance. Burial will follow Mass.
Fr. Nusbaum is survived by his sister, Nancy Hammon, and brother, Jerry Nusbaum, as well as many nieces and nephews.
