Vincent Linnebur, 1933-2007

Published Sunday, December 2, 2007 in the Columbia Daily Tribune
A follow up to my blog post from March 20, 2007

The Rev. Vincent Anthony Linnebur, 73, died on Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2007, at Boone Hospital Center.

At his request, a private family prayer service will be held at a later date.

He was born Dec. 4, 1933, in Tipton, the son of Edward and Leona Kramer Linnebur. He had four brothers and six sisters.

He attended St. Andrew’s Elementary School. In 1948, he entered St. John’s Seminary in Kansas City, where he graduated in 1954. He then entered the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio, where he was ordained into the priesthood on May 21, 1960. His first appointment in the Diocese of Jefferson City was as an instructor and director of students at St. Thomas Seminary in Hannibal.

In 1963, he went to Peru to work in the missions of the Jefferson City Diocese. He worked in Nazca and San Juan until 1975, when he returned to the United States and became pastor in Perry and Paris until 1978. He then became pastor of Sacred Heart Church in Columbia until 1984. He then studied at the University of Missouri, earning a master’s degree in social work in 1987. He worked as a counselor at Positive Motivation and Charter Hospital until being employed by the state of Missouri as director of the Moniteau County Counseling Center in California, Mo. He retired from state employment in 1994. He then lived in Columbia and Tipton.

Online condolences may be left for the Rev. Linnebur’s family at www.heartlandcremation.com.

Arrangements have been entrusted to Heartland Cremation & Burial Society of Columbia, 442-7850.

Please Pray for Fr. Vince

I know that no one who reads my blog has any clue who Fr. Vince, but please pray for him anyway. He is a very close friend of my fathers, he was the pastor at the church where my parents attended when they first moved to Columbia (Sacred Heart) and was the priest who baptized me when I was 27 days old. My earliest memories of him are showing up unannounced at our home bring ice cream for us kids. Vince had surgery to remove esophagus cancer last fall. Below is a report from his sister:

"He has said for over a month that he has not felt well. Last Friday he had a test run and found that he had gall stones. As of today we had not heard what the treatment was to be. That is until this afternoon (March 19). We received a call from Bob Heinz telling us that Vince had called him around noon telling him that he was in severe pain and vomiting. Bob went over and was going to take him to the hospital but Vince was unable to walk to the car, so they called for an ambulance.

Tests were run and found that he had a twisted intestine. Vince called bob around 3:00PM to say he was going to surgery and while on the phone they came for him.We were on the phone with family and the hospital and asked the doctor to call when he finished surgery. Thank God it was Dr. Starke who did the surgery since he did the other one and knows Vince’s insides.

Dr. Starke called about 8:00PM and this is the report: Vince got through surgery okay. He had a bowel obstruction from adhesions, which he said are common for one having had stomach surgery. While in there he took out the gall bladder. Vince has been on blood thinner and they had to reverse that before doing surgery. There was no sign of further cancer. The big concern is Vince’s level of strength.

Update 4:30 A.M. – Dr. Starke called to say that Vince is not doing too well. They had to put him back on the ventilator. His blood pressure is down. He said his condition is not irreversible. So it is definitely up to prayers now."

Where should these folks live?

This random couple in New York have turned to the internet to decide where they should live after they get married. They chose 250 towns across the continental United States and want people to vote for where they should live. You can vote as many times as you’d like for any combination of towns you like. Once a town receives 1,000,000 votes, they are going to move to that town for at least one year (and update the world on what they think of the town they end up in). Personally I think they should have narrowed it down some - 250 towns is way too many, but I guess they wanted the media hype in all those towns across the country. They probably should have worked a little harder on their website design as well ... but then, I'm just picky about things like that.

So where do you think they should live. I have submitted several votes for my hometown of Columbia, MO (which is currently number 33 of 250). Below is the top 10, just to give you an idea of where things stand.

So cast your vote!

Congratulations Hickman High School...I think

Journal lists Hickman in high school ranking

Newsweek magazine has named Hickman High School as one of the top 1,000 school in the United States.

Hickman took the 971st spot. Public schools were ranked by a formula based on the number of advanced placement tests taken by all students in 2004 divided by the number of graduating seniors.

Newsweek named Jefferson County High School in Irondale, Ala., as the nation’s top school.

Well, I feel special having gone to the 971 best high school in the country. Too bad the rating is based on AP scores, and not any of the numerous other qualities that make a school good or bad. It seems to me that such things as graduation rate, teacher quality, Average GPA, number who go onto college, rates of violence, overall student satisfaction of the school would make for a better accurate rating.