The Recitation of the Rosary for Rev. Ernest A. Flusche, age 79, of Enid, will be at 7:00 P.M. Thursday at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church, Enid.    The Mass of Christian Burial will be at 11:00 A.M. Friday, April 11, 2008, at Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, 3214 Lake Avenue, Oklahoma City.  Burial will be in St. Joseph Catholic Cemetery in Norman, with arrangements by Anderson-Burris Funeral Home, Enid.  Visitation will be all day Wednesday and Thursday until noon at Anderson-Burris Funeral Home, and then from 1:00 PM Thursday until the Rosary at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church.

            He was born to Albert and Josephine (Hennessy) Flusche on July 3, 1928, in Muskogee County, and died Monday, April 7, 2008, at St. Mary’s Medical Center in Enid.

            Father Flusche was ordained at Holy Family Cathedral on May 1, 1954, in Tulsa with a class of thirteen.  His first assignment was in Enid from May 1954 to June 1956, followed by graduate work at Catholic University of America in Washington D.C. where he earned his doctorate in philosophy of education.  He has done post-doctoral studies at Oklahoma City University, the University of Oklahoma, Newman University, Georgetown University, the International University of Menendez y Pelaya in Santander, Spain, the North American College in Rome, and Perkins School of Theology of Southern Methodist University.  He also taught for Trinity College, Catholic University of America, St. Gregory’s University, Newman University and Oklahoma City University.

            In 1959, he was assigned pastor of St. Thomas More Parish, the Catholic Chapel for the University of Oklahoma.  He served as superintendent of Catholic Schools for nine years.  In 1962, he became superintendent of McGuiness High School in Oklahoma City.  He was assigned pastor of St. Paul the Apostle Parish in Del City in 1964, where he built the present church in 1965.  He was assigned pastor of Christ the King Parish in Nichols Hills from 1968 to 1978.  He served as a vicar of Christian education for Oklahoma City Archdiocese from 1971 to 1979.

            Rev. Flusche pastored St. Mary’s Church in Ponca City from 1978 to 1990, and pastored St. Mary’s Church in Ardmore from 1990 to 1994.  He then went on to pastor St. Joseph’s in Norman from 1994 to 2000.   He then retired to his first assignment, St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church of Enid, where he remained active in ministry.  On April 6, 2004, Flusche was honored by Archdiocesan Council of Priest and Archbishop Beltran with the Father Stanley Rother “Good and Faithful Shepherd Award”.

            He is survived by six sisters, Marie Barnes and husband Robert , Loretta Bogie, and Eileen Williams and husband Bob, all of Okla. City; Mildren Hren and husband John of Indianpolis, IN, Annette Snyder of Oracle, AZ, and Doris Atkinson and husband Richard of Pittsburg, KS;  and nieces and nephews.

            He was preceded in death by his parents; four brothers, Fred, Jim, Bernard and Francis; and two sisters Lillian Pickens and Dorothy Pickard.