Anthony Eberhart was born on March 4, 1920, in the city of St. Louis, the son of Henry Eberhart and Rose Kloekamp Eberhart. At the age of 15, he entered the postulate at Maryhurst. The year of novitiate followed on the same property, under the guidance of Father Resch. He professed his first vows on January 8, 1939. Perpetual vows followed four years later, 1943.

 

Brother Tony's varied career allowed him to serve in a majority of the communities in the St. Louis Province and also in Peru. From his first profession until 1941, he studied as a scholastic at Maryhurst and then at the University of Dayton. In 1941 he began his teaching career at Chaminade in St. Louis. Assignments quickly followed in Chicago (January; 1943), Victoria, Texas (August, 1943) and then Colegio Santa Maria in Lima, Peru (January; 1944). In Lima Brother Anthony joined a group of pioneers who had arrived only five years earlier and helped lay the foundations of Marianist life in Peru. He spent seven years in Lima, returning to the Second Novitiate in Glencoe (1952), to St. Mary's High School in St. Louis (1953). Another four-year Stint in Lima followed (1954 - 58). Brother Tony definitively returned to the U.S. in 1958 where he took up teaching duties in Milwaukee and then, in 1959, again at St. Mary's High School. Brother Tony remained there until 1966, when he was assigned to his final term of service at Assumption High School in East St. Louis.

 

For the last twenty years of his life, Brother Tony was one of the pillars of the Marianist community serving the rapidly changing Assumption High School. During his time there the school changed from a large all-boys' school serving mainly Eastern European ethnic Catholics to a small coed high school serving an almost entirely black population, over half of whom were non-Catholics. Throughout this time, Brother Tony adapted in a great spirit of service and commitment to the people around him. The last few years of his life were spent above all in a myriad of practical and maintenance services. After retiring from classroom work in 1980, he kept himself active as the moderator of Affiliates, set-director for dramatic productions and chairman of the audio-visual department. A friend remarked that he consistently refused to take any bows for his part on the dramatic productions of Assumption.

 

The Brothers of his community wrote this eulogy for has funeral: "During his illness one of his fellow Brothers in the community remarked that Tony always seemed content 'just to be a Brother.' He enjoyed immensely doing a host of 'little services' both for his Marianist Brothers and for the faculty and administration at Assumption. He peacefully adjusted to the many human problems that confronted him in his life, especially many frustrating moments in the classroom. He lived among God's poor and himself experienced the poverty that belonged to Christ's beloved. His community spirit was exemplary, quiet and unobtrusive. It could easily have gone unnoticed, if you were not looking for it. His shopping each Wednesday for his community became a consistent ritual. He was well liked by everyone who came in contact with him, and his contacts reached everywhere via his hobby, amateur radio.

 

He was especially devoted to his religious community and to the local church. He kept a collection of memorial cards of departed Brothers, posting them on a well-filled bulletin board as the anniversaries of their deaths occurred. He placed the biographies of these same Brothers on a music stand in the chapel with a hope that the members of the community-would read them. He would read them himself and frequently reminisce about the religious who were his contemporaries. As for the local church, he would often help pastors with their audio-visual needs. At a community meeting in 1979 he suggested that the Assumption community attend (as a body) the Sunday Masses in various East St. Louis churches to manifest solidarity with those parishes sending students to Assumption and to give a Marianist witness to the parish families. The custom still continues today.

 

"Indeed, here was a poor man of God!"

Rev. David Fleming, S.M. East St. Louis Marianist Community