Priest remembered for love of skiing, kayaking and the military

A priest known to at least one family member as “Uncle Father Jim” died on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 17. Father James Himmelsbach, a longtime military chaplain who served around the world and was a priest of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, suffered a short battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 72. 

He was born in Washington, D.C., the second-oldest of five whose father served in the military. Eventually, the family settled in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, where he attended Catholic elementary and high schools. He enlisted in the Army in 1970 after receiving a draft notice for the Vietnam War. Eventually, he crossed paths with Father Martin Fleming, a priest of the archdiocese who was serving as a military chaplain in Germany at the time. The two got to know each other, and Father Fleming had a strong influence on his calling to the priesthood. 

Father Fleming, who died in 2018, “saw a keen young mind exploring where God would take him,” Loretta Himmelsbach, his younger sister, wrote in the eulogy for her brother, who was ordained in 1977. “On one particular leave skiing in the Alps, Jim felt God’s presence surrounding the natural beauty. As he marveled at the greatness, he heard a gentle whisper calling him to the priesthood — to build bridges, not to blow them up.” 

Father Himmelsbach spent a lot of time skiing while in Germany, then taught it for a year in Pennsylvania before answering God’s call and enrolling at The St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul. In his fourth year, he met a first-year seminarian, Father Michael Skluzacek. They became friends and, later, “kayak buddies.” They went on numerous trips, including an annual visit to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in northern Minnesota. Their last trip was in August 2020. 

“He actually taught me how to ski, how to downhill ski,” recalled Father Skluzacek, who is now the director of pastoral formation at the seminary. “We had a seminarian outing. We went to Welch Village (near Red Wing). … I was just a first-year theologian and he was a (transitional) deacon. That just meant so much to me, that he took the time to teach me how to ski.” 

After his ordination, Father Himmelsbach served as associate pastor of the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul from 1977-80. He then became a military chaplain in the Army and served in various parts of the world for 21 years, which included two tours in South Korea. He was an airborne paratrooper and, according to his sister, was at the time the only Catholic chaplain serving in that role, “with 69 jumps and 68 good landings.” Throughout his two decades as a chaplain, Father Skluzacek kept in touch, which deepened a friendship that lasted all the way to the end of Father Himmelsbach’s life.

“I was inspired by his chaplaincy in the Army,” Father Skluzacek said. “I visited him so many times and saw the work that he did and how dedicated he was to the soldiers. I was just so fortunate to go with him as he said Mass for the soldiers. And, I remember one day he had five Masses in a row. He would just go to different locations where the soldiers were doing their training, and he had mass in camouflage because they were training for war. And, he’d (celebrate) Mass on the fender of a jeep.”

Father Himmelsbach retired from the Army in 2001 as a lieutenant colonel and returned to the archdiocese, where he served at two parishes from 2002 until his retirement in 2015: St. Joseph in Waconia (2002-2006) and Annunciation in south Minneapolis (2006-2015). 

After experiencing back pain in late summer of 2020, he discovered the pancreatic cancer in November. The disease progressed quickly, with Father Himmelsbach eventually moving to the hospice ward at the VA Hospital in Minneapolis. In his final days, Loretta and other siblings spent time with him, and Father Skluzacek gave his friend of 45 years last rites the day before he died during a five-hour visit that he called “the most beautiful experience.”

Loretta said of a bedside visit with him the day he died, “For three hours, we prayed, played hymns and held his hands while being present to him. He left this world as a faithful man of God’s great compassion and love, and in total peace.” 

She summed up his life in this way: “Skier, kayaker, world traveler, dear friend, supportive brother, caring uncle, Jim was a man of God, imperfectly perfect, following a life journey that he did not plan but fulfilled him like no other.” 

The funeral Mass will be 11 a.m. Feb. 26 at Annunciation in south Minneapolis, with a livestream of the Mass at facebook.com/annunciationmsp. Interment will be at Fort Snelling National Cemetery in Minneapolis.