Pastor of St Andrew Parish & School 1947-1960

Pastor of St Elizabeth Seton School 1960

Date of Birth: 9/1/1895

Date of Ordination: March 11, 1922

Date of Death: 12/14/1960

A native of Cumminsville, Father Otto J. Herrmann was born September 1, 1895 to Pius and Theresa Herrmann. He was the brother of Mrs. Mary Stenger, Mrs. Clara Obert, Mrs. Alma Tepe, Mrs. Helen Paffe, and Hugo, Louis and Irene Herrmann.

He attended St. Boniface’s Parochial School, St Xavier’s High School and the diocesan seminaries: Mt. St. Mary’s and St. Gregory. He was ordained at St. Peter In Chains Cathedral, Cincinnati, Ohio, by Archbishop Henry Moeller on March 11, 1922.

He was appointed assistant pastor of St. Paul’s Church, Cincinnati, and teacher at Elder High School in June, 1922; assistant at Holy Trinity Church, Dayton, July, 1923; assistant at St. Mary’s Hyde Park, Cincinnati, August, 1930; and assistant at St. Lawrence’s, Cincinnati, July, 1931.

Father Herrmann was made pastor of Sts. Peter and Paul’s Church, Newport, Ohio, in March, 1936, and pastor of St. Andrew’s Church, Milford, in September, 1946.

The present church at Newport was completed in 1938 during Father Herrmann’s administration there. While at Milford he directed an extensive building program, including the construction of St. Andrew’s School, next to the church, and Elizabeth Seton School, four and one-half miles east of Milford.

Father Herrmann was well known in Milford for the cordial relations he encouraged between the parochial school and the public school, which stand on adjacent sites. The pastor and the public school superintendent, James H. Fley, worked out a school bus program that permitted the buses of each school to transport some of the pupils of the other school.

Father Herrmann conducted his rapidly expanding parish without an assistant, but was helped with the Sunday mass schedule by Jesuits from the Milford Novitiate.

Three weeks before his death, he confirmed a class of 350 children.

The dynamic pastor of St Andrew Catholic Church in Milford died Wednesday morning, December 14, 1960 as a result of injuries suffered in an automobile accident on December 3rd.

A Solemn Pontifical Funeral Mass was offered in St. Andrew’s Church, Milford, on December 17, 1960. Archbishop Karl J. Alter was celebrant of the Mass and Father John L. Oberlander of St. John’s Church, Middletown, preached the sermon. Burial was in Gate of Heaven Cemetery.